Route selection using multi-criteria assessment: a case study for the North West Coastal Highway, Geraldton

This paper describes an application of multi-criteria analysis techniques to select a preferred route alignment for the North West Coastal Highway north of Geraldton. Alternative routes for the highway had different impacts and attributes including costing, engineering, social and planning impacts. Various stakeholders supported different options. The benefits and limitations of MCA are discussed as well as the procedures adopted for this project. Applying multi-criteria analysis and encouraging stakeholders to place relative priorities on key objectives resulted in identifying two possible solutions. The paper describes how the final recommendation was made on attributes outside the MCA analysis.