The Conceptual Framework of the Government-Sponsored Rural Road Improvement Project Evaluation and Selection

Abstract

To take advantage from locating in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) mainland region, the Thai government has established a policy of being logistics and transportation hub. The policy has, therefore, challenged the Department of Rural Roads (DRR) and particularly the Bureau of Rural Roads (BRR) 11, 12, and 14 undertaking responsibility for all rural roads in the south part of Thailand. The BRR strategic plan and implementation have been demanded to reform. This research aimed to create the conceptual framework of route project improvement execution plan for BRRs' decisionmaking on project investment prioritization. The focus group interview method was applied to gather factors influencing transportation investment projects in order to develop the criteria of route project improvement prioritization. In addition, the score level of each criterion was also collected through this method. Then, to rank the important criteria, the questionnaire was developed to gain the data of pairwise comparison and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied to analyze the data. The results showed that the framework was suitable for the BRRs' long-term route project improvement execution plan while the instant application was appropriated for the BRRs' short-term plan.

The Development of Strategic Management Plans for Construction Equipment, Vehicles, and Tools Under the Transportation Policy Transformations in Thailand

“…To achieve these goals, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) is in a critical role as it manipulates all transportation systems. These systems are determinants of the economy of the country [2].…”

“…The Department of Rural Roads (DRR) is an organization under the MOT supervision, nationwide responsible for 3,280 routes with a total length of 48,031.391 kilometers [3]. Connectivity (to other transport modes), accessibility (to public services), and mobility (as detour or shortcut for resource movement) are significant outputs of this entity under the DRR's strategic goals of stability, prosperity, sustainability, and high-performance organization [2].…”

The Integrated Appraisal Framework of Rural Road Improvement Projects

“…The location of Thailand gives it an advantage in terms of trading accessibility within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Thai government has announced the policy of making Thailand a logistics and transportation hub and this should increase Thailand's trading competitiveness due to the reduction of transportation costs [1]. At the same time, the Department of Rural Roads (DRR) has changed from a temporary to a permanent organization and has established the organizational strategic goals of stability, prosperity, sustainability, and high performance [2,3].…”

“…Nevertheless, after the compilation of the DRR's national improvement project, many different factors have led to difficulties in project selection [1]. The development of MCDM in the first phase was described in more detail by Suksuwan and Trangkanont [1] who focused on rural road improvement project evaluation and selection in the south of Thailand.…”