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.

Using data collected among 742 respondents, this article aims at gaining greater insight into (i) the interaction between face-to-face (F2F) and electronic contacts, (ii) the influence of information content and relational distance on the communication mode/ service choice and (iii) the influence of relational and geographical distance, in addition to other factors, on the frequency of F2F and electronic contacts with relatives and friends. The results show that the frequency of F2F contacts is positively correlated with that for electronic communication, pointing at a complementarity effect.With respect to information content and relational distance, we find, on the basis of descriptive analyses, that synchronous modes/services (F2F and telephone conversations) are used more for urgent matters and that asynchronous modes (in particular email) become more influential as the relational distance increases. Finally, ordered probit analyses confirm that the frequency of both F2F and electronic communication declines when the physical and relational distance to social network members increases.

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Planning approaches that integrate road infrastructure and other land uses are being increasingly applied. Dealing with functional interrelatedness and stakeholder fragmentation are the main reasons for this. This article conceptualizes and analyses why and how such integrated approaches can be applied effectively throughout consecutive stages of infrastructure planning. The two case studies illustrate that the concept of integration is applied for strategic as well as operational reasons, and they reveal that these reasons may alternate throughout the planning process. Effective integration is therefore dynamic: it appropriately focuses on strengthening the socio-economic perspectives of a region for the longer term, as well as on the relations between different land uses that are physically adjacent and competing for space within a smaller area. Due to fragmented institutional contexts, successfully dealing with interrelatedness requires an intense level of interaction amongst involved actors. Such "coproduction" of visions and plans has two important characteristics: negotiation, and learning about each other's goals. Ultimately the case studies also show that planning at the infrastructure-land use interface needs institutional mechanisms to guide the alterations between strategically and operationally inspired integration. Contracts with private parties, public participation, and positive conditions for learning about each other's referential frames are examples of the institutional mechanisms encountered in this study.