A MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING MODEL FOR SELECTION OF BOT TOLL ROAD PROPOSALS WITHIN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

In recent years, governments in many countries have begun privatizing infrastructure sectors. Some of the forces driving this movement have been a scarcity of public resources, an increase in the demand for services, a political trend toward the deregulation of infrastructure, and an expansion of global capital markets.The build-operate-transfer (BOT) approach has played a growing role in the implementation of infrastructure privatization. Due to the type, uncertainty, and high risk of BOT projects, the evaluation/selection process is a crucial part of a BOT project. To date, decision-makers within the public sector have lacked a set of complete selection criteria or a systematic process to help them make quality selections.The main objectives of this research are to understand the details of toll road projects in order to (1) identify the major criteria and variables related to toll roads, and (2) develop an integrated decision-making process model as a framework to help the public sector make quality decisions.The methodology of this research includes the development of a multi-criteria decision-making model based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and validated by use of a California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) privatization program as a case study.The model makes the selection process clear and able to be traced back by all parties. Because of this, it will likely encourage the private sector to bid on BOT projects. This research developed a framework that will enable the public sector to make better decisions when selecting BOT toll road proposals and also save decision-makers time and effort.