A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering School of Engineering and Technology

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1986

The research deals with the evaluation of methods in selecting rural tertiary road projects in developing countries. The case study area is Cebu Province, Philippines. It has also included the study of Philippine 's rural roads and the setting of priorities for rural road projects particularly in the study area. Two existing methods are used in evaluating the ranking namely: the ARD--WB Method and the WSP Heuristic solution. Two different kinds of road network were presented. One for the independent sample, that is, the proposed roads are independent of each other, and the other for the dependent sample. Comparison of the different methods was done , using the independent and dependent samples. The actual ranking of the study area and the ARD--WB Method is compared using independent samples. Their relationships were tested using the Wilcoxon Test for paired observation with a level of significance equal to 0.05. Both rankings are related to the other. A new framework of setting priori ties for rural road projects is developed by combining and modifying the two existing methods. With the brief account of the study, two additional advantages are presented, as such: the computation of benefits includes the effect of the old or existing road to the new road project. Secondly, the inclusion of many benefit parameters to the ranking method. Ranking is done using the new method and comparison resulted that Modified and Combined ARD--WB-WSP Method is more related to the WSP as compared to ARD--WB Method . Two existing methods were related to the Modified and Combined ARD--WB-WSP Method. The new developed method is recommended to rural road planners in selecting mutually dependent road projects considering the advantages over the existing methods.