<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Mega transport infrastructure projects are frequently perceived as critical to the “success” of major metropolitan, regional and national development because of their potential to affect significant socioeconomic and territorial changes. However, the mega infrastructure development literature tends to focus upon the frequent failures of such projects because of their inability to meet their original expectations.A major cause for such perceived underperformance has been attributed to the inadequacies of <italic>ex-ante</italic> project appraisal methodologies. In particular, their excessively narrow focus has prompted growing calls for broader and more transparent project appraisal frameworks. These calls coincide with a period where public private partnerships (PPPs) are growing in importance globally as the favoured procurement route for governments looking to undertake new mega transport infrastructure developments. Some see the practicalities of PPPs as placing them at odds with aspirations for more inclusive and open project appraisal with adequate consideration of the public interest.It is the authors’ contention that if introduced with broader and more systematically presented sustainability concerns, PPPs can remain compatible with such ambitions. Towards this end, this paper presents the rudimentaries of a policy-led multi-criteria analysis (PLMCA) approach to project appraisal as a means by which PLMCA can contribute to more holistic PPP procurement practices. The authors contend in the latter part of the paper that PLMCA addresses many of the limitations associated with the application of narrower decision-making and project appraisal approaches currently supporting PPPs and other more conventional procurement practices.</abstract>

Mega transport infrastructure projects are frequently perceived as critical to the “success” of major metropolitan, regional and national development because of their potential to affect significant socioeconomic and territorial changes. However, the mega infrastructure development literature tends to focus upon the frequent failures of such projects because of their inability to meet their original expectations.A major cause for such perceived underperformance has been attributed to the inadequacies of ex-ante project appraisal methodologies. In particular, their excessively narrow focus has prompted growing calls for broader and more transparent project appraisal frameworks. These calls coincide with a period where public private partnerships (PPPs) are growing in importance globally as the favoured procurement route for governments looking to undertake new mega transport infrastructure developments. Some see the practicalities of PPPs as placing them at odds with aspirations for more inclusive and open project appraisal with adequate consideration of the public interest.It is the authors’ contention that if introduced with broader and more systematically presented sustainability concerns, PPPs can remain compatible with such ambitions. Towards this end, this paper presents the rudimentaries of a policy-led multi-criteria analysis (PLMCA) approach to project appraisal as a means by which PLMCA can contribute to more holistic PPP procurement practices. The authors contend in the latter part of the paper that PLMCA addresses many of the limitations associated with the application of narrower decision-making and project appraisal approaches currently supporting PPPs and other more conventional procurement practices.

The Planning and Appraisal of Mega Transport Infrastructure Projects Delivered by Public–Private Partnerships: The Case for the Use of Policy-Led Multi-Criteria Analysis

Bartlett School of Planning, University College London

Organization, Technology and Management in Construction: an International Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mega transport infrastructure projects are frequently perceived as critical to the “success” of major metropolitan, regional and national development because...

PLMCA framework phases	Actors involved	PLMCA steps/activities undertaken within each phase
Phase 1: The problem-structuring phase	Client agency and analyst team (closed approach)Analyst team and project stakeholders (open approach)	Step 1.1: Problem definition (including issue analysis)Step 1.2: Design of PLMCAStep 1.3: Context analysis and boundary definitionStep 1.4: Option identificationStep 1.5: Policy analysisStep 1.6: Stakeholder identificationStep 1.7: Scenario building
Phase 2: The model-building phase	Analyst team (closed approach)Analyst team and project stakeholders (open approach)	Step 2.1: Formulation of objective/appraisal criteria (adopting an open or closed process)Step 2.2: Derivation of weightings (adopting an open or closed process)
Phase 3: The model-use phase	Analyst team (closed approach)Analyst team and project stakeholders (open approach)	Step 3.1: Scoring (adopting an open or closed process)Step 3.2: Further development of issues, objective/criteria, options and scenario (adopting an open or closed process)

The Planning and Appraisal of Mega Transport Infrastructure Projects Delivered by Public–Private Partnerships: The Case for the Use of Policy-Led Multi-Criteria Analysis

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Jul 30, 2019

Page range: 1992 - 2008

Received: Sep 05, 2018

Accepted: Nov 05, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/otmcj-2019-0007

Keywords
infrastructure, MTPs, PPPs, planning, multi-criteria appraisal

© 2019 John Ward et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Generic phases and of the PLMCA appraisal process and stakeholders. Source: Adapted from Belton and Stewart (2002).

The Planning and Appraisal of Mega Transport Infrastructure Projects Delivered by Public–Private Partnerships: The Case for the Use of Policy-Led Multi-Criteria Analysis

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Jul 30, 2019

Page range: 1992 - 2008

Received: Sep 05, 2018

Accepted: Nov 05, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/otmcj-2019-0007

Keywordsinfrastructure, MTPs, PPPs, planning, multi-criteria appraisal

© 2019 John Ward et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Generic phases and of the PLMCA appraisal process and stakeholders. Source: Adapted from Belton and Stewart (2002).

Keywords
infrastructure, MTPs, PPPs, planning, multi-criteria appraisal