Introduction: The highway A5 Nord/Weinviertel Autobahn should connect Vienna (Austria) and Brno (Czech Republic). Nowadays travellers have to go through a mix of highways and country roads which go through cities and villages. Construction is performed in three stages: In 2010 the first construction stage with a length of 23.5 km from Eibesbrunn to Schrick was opened to traffic. The second stage from Schrick to Poysbrunn with a length of 25 km is supposed to be constructed till 2017 and the last stage from Poysbrunn to Drasenhofen with a length of 9 km should be finished in 2018. From Drasenhofen, the Austrian boarder travellers can use the Czech highway to Brno, so there will be a continuous highway between Vienna and Brno. The construction and maintenance of the highway is financed through Public Private Partnership by the Bonaventura Straßeneinrichtungs-GmbH Problem statement: The objective of a new highway is to improve the travel conditions and improve the quality of life for the people who are living close to the old road and suffer from noise, thus these benefits exceeds the costs of constructing and operating a highway? For answering this question an economic evaluation has to be done. Theoretical and methodological considerations An in Medias res Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) where all relevant economic environmental and social impacts are included, is performed for the highway case. A CBA as an economic evaluation method was preferred over a Cost-Utility analysis (CUA) and Cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) because at the CUA the benefits are measured in different units for example in quality adjusted life years and at the CEA benefits are measure as a single unidimensional outcome like life years gained, whereas at the CBA all benefits and costs are monetized. Further CUA and CEA are mostly used for evaluating
