The California Department of Transportation has a budget of approximately US$10 billion over four years for repairing the infrastructure of freeways and freeway bridges in California. However, this budget is insufficient to implement all the requested measures. A selection of measures must therefore be implemented. Among other things, this is challenging because, for example, the respective representatives of the various California districts are demanding as many repair measures as possible in their own administrative areas to improve the infrastructure in their districts, create jobs, and ultimately be re-elected. Similar problems, for example, in the allocation of funds for broadband expansion, are all too well known in Germany. Clear and precise evaluation criteria are required for transparent evaluation and logical selection.
Prof. Ralph Keeney and Prof. Johannes Siebert supported the California Department of Transportation in this selection decision in autumn 2014. In the first step, individual and group interviews were conducted with decision makers from the California Department of Transportation to identify relevant values and objectives. In the second step, the goals were structured, with a particular focus on calculating the strategic objectives. In the third step, the goals were operationalized, meaning they were made measurable. On this basis, the California Department of Transportation can evaluate all measures transparently and comprehensibly and make an appropriate decision about their selection.