Developing Criteria for Priority Ranking of Bridges: A Case Study of Bagmati Province

Abstract

In our country, prioritizing the projects for its implementation has been seen with great importance after institutionalization of federalism. At present, federal, provincial and local level government is executing infrastructure development in their respective jurisdiction. The main objective of this thesis is to identify the criteria for selection of bridges by federal, provincial and local government. Criteria are identified based on prevalent practice of multi criteria prioritization on bridge sector on national & international level and discussion with officials from bridge project implementing organizations on national level like DOR and LRBP. Sub criteria is developed with the help of secondary data on traffic, population, cost of bridge, all weather road length collected from online sources, DOR and LRBP and use of multi criteria analysis techniques like linear value function, series of verbal pair wise assessments and direct rating. AHP analysis is done to provide weights to criteria for which pair wise comparison form are developed and are made to fill from panel of 12 professionals related to bridge sector comprising of elected representatives, academic professionals, government officials and practicing consultant on bridge sector. Three criteria for federal level, five criteria for province level and four criteria for local level are identified. Among three criteria for federal level, strategic importance of road weighs 58.1%, AADT weighs 28.4% and project readiness weighs 13.5%. For province level matrix, strategic road importance weighs 34.3%, access to socioeconomic activities weighs 22.9%, all-weathered road length weighs 16.6%, present traffic volume weighs 14.9% and per capita investment weighs 11.3 %. For local level matrix, road closure duration weighs 34%, strategic importance of road weighs 27.1%, present traffic volume (VPD) weighs 21.4 % and all weathered road length maintainable/operable by local level weights 17.5%. During ranking of 17 bridges to be implemented by DOR with help of federal level multi criteria, Sansare Bridge on MRM highway at Ch. 392+280 score 2.61 and lies on rank one. Additional probable criteria were also put forward by the experts during study which however is not measurable at present context due to data insufficiency. Addition and omission of criteria however might be possible for real application accounting flexibility of multi-criteria analysis based on experts and stakeholders opinion.