An Integrated AHP–EWM–SPA Approach for Evaluating Safety Management in Highway Tunnel Construction

Safety management evaluation in highway tunnel construction involves significant complexity due to multi-level, multi-indicator, and uncertain characteristics. To address these challenges, this study proposes an integrated evaluation approach combining the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Entropy Weight Method (EWM), and Set Pair Analysis (SPA). An evaluation index system is established from the perspective of system defensive capability, encompassing four dimensions—organizational, personnel, material, and information management—with 19 indicators. SPA is employed to quantify the relationships among indicators through identity, discrepancy, and opposition, while a hybrid weighting scheme combines subjective judgments and objective data. A confidence-based identification criterion is further introduced to improve the robustness of classification. The proposed model is applied to a highway tunnel project, and the results show good agreement with observed field conditions. The analysis indicates that the method effectively captures intermediate states and uncertainty in safety management systems while reducing bias associated with single weighting strategies and maximum membership-based decisions. The proposed framework provides a practical and reliable approach for safety management evaluation and supports risk-informed decision-making in tunnel construction.