Current complex society necessitates finding inclusive arrangements for delivering sustainable road infrastructure integrating design, construction and maintenance stages of the project lifecycle. In this article we investigate whether linking stages by integrated contracts can lead to more sustainable road infrastructure development by assessing Dutch experiences with inclusiveness of Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) projects in the dimensions of actors, scope and time. We examined practical public and private experiences through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. We find that in practice the closed procurement stage often results in a conservative, detailed contract. Awarding on quality criteria can stimulate inclusiveness in the actors and scope dimensions, and therefore provide possibilities to increase sustainability. In construction and maintenance, cooperation between actors has improved due to lifecycle linkages. However, in the time dimension the relation between integrated project and infrastructure network needs further optimization. We conclude that integrated contracts can lead to optimizations by lifecycle costing and management because of linked stages in the project lifecycle and recommend pursuing three avenues towards sustainable infrastructure development: green procurement, strategic asset management and relational contracting.
Many cities and regions have embraced the concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). This paper explores how transfer of TOD as a policy concept impacts its implementation in the Netherlands. The study determined international policy ideas and tools that have contributed to implementation and tested them with Dutch experts using workshops, serious gaming and design charrettes. The findings suggest a number of factors complicating policy transfer, and that 'softer' transferable lessons (e.g., good actor relationships, information sharing) are much more difficult to transfer than 'harder' technical tools. Using policy lessons and tools in learning exercises helps to develop contextually appropriate policy solutions.
Studies in the Planning Support Systems (PSS) debate are increasingly paying attention to the support function of PSS. This involves among other things studying the usefulness of PSS to practitioners. This paper adds another dimension to this evolving debate by arguing that planning tasks should receive more attention. Although planning tasks are central in several PSS definitions, they have hardly received explicit attention in empirical studies. In an aim to fill this void we conducted an empirical study based on the perspective of tasktechnology fit. The latter consists of a combination ('fit') of analytical and communicative support capabilities ('technologies'), and three types of planning tasks: exploration, selection and negotiation. Next, we selected four case studies in the Netherlands, in which the same PSS was applied, which consists of a combination of the CommunityViz software and a touch-enabled MapTable. The cases differed in the planning tasks that were central during the workshop, resulting in different kinds of usefulness attributed to the PSS. For instance, in one case with a selection task the communicative support capabilities contributed to the transparency of the process, whereas in another the analytic support capabilities of the PSS improved the task of negotiation because of the iterative feedback it provided. The paper concludes with the observation that the concept of task-technology fit has potential be applied in different contexts and with different types of PSS.
The economic crisis that started in 2009 has negatively impacted in the Netherlands the available financial resources for urban development. Dutch municipalities struggle since then with falling local financial sources, especially since active public land policy, traditionally an important additional financial source, became not so profitable anymore. One supposed effect is the limited degree to which municipalities can nowadays finance public infrastructure that serves wider areas, thus more than one specific development site (i.e. 'large' public infrastructure). Until now, however, there are no data available that support this claim. In this paper, we explore this and the role that developer obligations can play as an alternative, compensating financial source. Developer obligations are in many countries a growing popular public value capturing instrument, but in the Netherlands, a relative new phenomenon. On the basis of surveys, interviews and policy analysis, we conclude that at least a quarter of Dutch municipalities use developer obligations to obtain financial sources for large infrastructure. This seems, however, so far not to compensate for the diminishing of other municipal financial sources. The paper ends with some speculation about the future evolvement of developer obligations in the Netherlands. ARTICLE HISTORY
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