The Bruce Highway Action Plan Program Evaluation

The BHAP (Bruce Highway Action Plan) Program Evaluation was a momentous task conducted in most part by the TMR (Transport and Main Roads) CBA (cost benefit analysis) team. The evaluation included 189 overtaking lanes, 404 km of road widening and shoulder sealing in various places between Brisbane and Cairns, 56 capacity focused projects and 16 flood immunity focused projects. The total projected capital costs of all projects proposed as part of the BHAP amounted to over 16 billion dollars. The program evaluation conducted, due to the short timeframes, lack of available data and strategic nature of the plan, has been "coined" a strategic evaluation. This paper focuses on the methodology applied to the projects proposed in the BHAP. A TMR designed project/program evaluation model (CARP (Concise Analysis of Road Programs) V1.0) was used to evaluate the majority of the proposed BHAP projects. The model produces streams of discounted benefits and costs of the projects and program using limited and incomplete data. The large scale of work and the close proximity of projects allowed for an integrated approach to the analysis, which considered the impact projects have on each other. The result of the program, if all evaluated projects are included, is a BCR (benefit cost ratio) of approximately 0.71 at a discount rate of 7%. If the less viable projects are removed from the program, the program can obtain a benefit cost ratio of greater than 1 with a sufficiently large number of projects remaining.