A Sustainable Asset Valuation of a Road Infrastructure Project in Queensland, Australia

The document presents an 'integrated' or 'extended' CBA model designed for the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) to value 'betterment' road projects—investments that build infrastructure to a higher resilience standard than original specifications. Unlike traditional CBAs that focus on direct avoided reconstruction costs, this model incorporates 15 non-road indicators, including mental health impacts, market access for agriculture, and environmental externalities. Through case studies, such as the Aurukun Access Road, the report demonstrates that including these indirect and induced benefits can significantly alter the perceived economic viability of a project, potentially justifying investments that would otherwise appear financially non-viable.

• The developed model expands traditional cost-benefit analysis by including an economic valuation of indirect and induced outcomes, termed 'externalities', to estimate the overall societal value of betterment investments.
• The methodology identifies 15 distinct non-road indicators to quantify the benefits of infrastructure resilience, categorized into tangible impacts (affecting cash flows) and intangible impacts (requiring economic valuation).
• Specific non-road indicators used in the model include road disruption (fuel and travel time), pollution (air, noise, and water), GHG emissions, nature and landscape impacts, market access for crops, fruit, fish, and livestock, access to essential services, access to workplaces and schools, and mental health impacts.
• The model provides two distinct sets of metrics—financial and economic—to compare the direct investment stream against the broader societal benefits, using Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Benefit-to-Cost Ratio (BCR).
• Application of the model to a rural context example showed that including non-road benefits increased the BCR from 2.01 to 2.47 and the NPV from AUD 3,540,960 to AUD 6,095,461.
• The analysis demonstrates that some projects may be financially non-viable but remain worthwhile from an economic perspective when non-road benefits are included, as seen in a scenario where the BCR rose from 0.90 to 1.02.
• A case study of the Aurukun Access Road, where a 10-km section was bitumen-sealed, showed the project was both economically and financially viable, with BCRs exceeding 6 and IRRs greater than 140%.

APA

Bassi, A. M., Guzzetti, M., Siersted, M., & Casier, L. (2023). A Sustainable Asset Valuation of a Road Infrastructure Project in Queensland, Australia. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/savi-queensland-australia-road-infrastructure.pdf

Chicago

Bassi, Andrea M., Marco Guzzetti, Morten Siersted, and Liesbeth Casier. A Sustainable Asset Valuation of a Road Infrastructure Project in Queensland, Australia. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2023. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/savi-queensland-australia-road-infrastructure.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bassi |first1=Andrea M. |last2=Guzzetti |first2=Marco |last3=Siersted |first3=Morten |last4=Casier |first4=Liesbeth |title=A Sustainable Asset Valuation of a Road Infrastructure Project in Queensland, Australia |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=April 2023 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/savi-queensland-australia-road-infrastructure.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bassi2023sustainable, author = {Bassi, Andrea M. and Guzzetti, Marco and Siersted, Morten and Casier, Liesbeth}, title = {{A Sustainable Asset Valuation of a Road Infrastructure Project in Queensland, Australia}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2023-04/savi-queensland-australia-road-infrastructure.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }