ABSTRACT
What is the value of landscape and environment preservation? It seems simple but this is a very complex question, which answer is, no doubt, very subjective. Environmental aspects are having, nowadays, an increasing importance and everyone talks about keeping the world green! However, when the solutions for preserving the environment are expensive, sometimes are not implemented because of the cost/benefice analysis and then, the choice goes to a worst environmental solution.
We think that the costs are relatively easy to achieve, but what about the benefices? How to measure and attribute value to them?
In this article we discuss a methodology used in the study of 3 urban road alternatives in the North of Portugal, where, mainly, environmental, geotechnical and social issues had to been taken into account in order to evaluate the best solution. The alternative chosen was the most expensive of all, when considering only construction costs, since it included a 1,3 km tunnel in a granitic rock mass, with 95 m of maximum overburden.
However, the tunnel solution was the only which had less environmental impacts and allowed a more sustainable development, keeping the local municipalities free of heaving traffic, as it will be demonstrated. The case study that will be presented is an example of a decision that was taken by a private owner. Similar options are, unfortunately, quite rare to find in government projects.
