Basis of Sustainable Infrastructure Project Decisions

Abstract

AbstractInfrastructure systems are essential pillars for the prosperous development of a country since they act as vectors that connect buildings and industrial nodes as well as provide services and goods within the built environment. Despite the vital goals and obvious significance of civil infrastructure systems, these projects are often plagued with schedule delays, cost overruns, and failure to meet their sustainability objectives. Therefore, incorporating traditional planning is vital to address some of those challenges, yet Front-End Planning (FEP) remains paramount. Given the complex nature of infrastructure projects as well as their environmental and social threats to the built environment, a promising solution to address these challenges can be through coupling the effective tools of FEP with sustainable infrastructure certifications. Although sustainability and FEP tools may pave the way for enhanced project performance, such tools and certifications are not meant to serve as a standalone solution but rather should complement each other to foster success for sustainable infrastructure projects. The goal of this paper is to investigate the existing synergies between sustainability credits and FEP elements to provide a basis to sustainable infrastructure project decisions. To achieve this goal, the research team created a matrix that correlates sustainability criteria with the elements included in the FEP phase: Basis of Project Decision. To assess the developed matrix, approximately a hundred case-study surveys were conducted with stakeholders of sustainable infrastructure projects. This study serves as a framework to support project teams in planning, assessing risks, and managing sustainable infrastructure projects by providing a basis to the decisions that assist in diligent FEP for sustainable infrastructure projects.