An Analytical Network Process model for risks prioritisation in megaprojects

• This paper modelled social, technical, economic, environmental and political risks in megaproject at construction phase.
• The paper revealed that risk complexities can lead to higher possibility of megaprojects running over time and budget.
• Three years data was collected from ETN project during construction and used to develop ANP models in the paper.
• The new tool can be used as a quantitative approach to prioritise potential risks across the project supply network.
• The paper offers researchers with risk areas and a method to quantify their effects on megaprojects during construction.

Megaprojects are complex and expensive projects that often involve social, technical, economic, environmental and political (STEEP) challenges to project management. Despite these challenges, project owners and financiers continue to invest large sums of money in megaprojects that run high risks of being over schedule and over budget. While some degree of cost and schedule risks are considered during project planning, the challenge of modelling risks interactions and impacts on project performance still remains. To tackle this technical problem, this research adopted the Analytical Network Process and combined it with a new Risk Priority Index as an innovative approach to model risks analytically based on data collected from the Edinburgh Tram Network project at the construction phase. The approach provides an interactive way for developers to prioritise risks across the project supply network and to initiate timely mitigation strategies against significant cost and time consequences of STEEP risks on megaproject performance.