Infrastructure Optioneering: An Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach

Engineers often make recommendations for project alternatives that affect multiple stakeholders. Collaborative decision-making for project alternatives can become challenging for engineers because of the many opinions — the client, owner, public, architects, and other agencies and stakeholders, all with different and often conflicting priorities. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP), a multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) technique, offers a structured approach to decision analysis in a multiple-criteria, multiple-stakeholder environment. AHP begins with setting a goal, developing alternatives that may be able to meet that goal, and then evaluating each alternative based upon its ability to meet the stakeholders’ criteria. AHP is utilized in many different fields, including economics, politics, finance, resource allocation, conflict resolution, design, architecture, and transportation. A hypothetical case study for a grade separation design for the California high-speed train project using AHP is applied in this paper to determine the best possible design alternative.