Abstract: Schedule compression is commonly needed in construction management. Currently, a wide range
of methods for schedule compression have been developed in the literature. Almost all these methods
consider only cost in the process of determining optimal sequence for activities. But in fact, other factors
beyond cost in schedule compression, such as resource availability, risk, and complexity, should have been
attributed to the limited use of existing methods. This paper presents a new method for schedule compression
of construction projects using an analytical hierarchy process (AHP). This method adopts a multi-objective
decision environment in which activities are queued for crashing based on the preferred coefficient
calculated by considering resource, risk, and cost. Finally, an example is analyzed to demonstrate the specific
optimization procedure. In comparison with the traditional methods, a more objective, comprehensive and
accurate preferred coefficient can be achieved, which gives decision makers better optimization solutions to
meet the actual needs.