Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) cover a range of possible relationships between public and private parties. PPP contracts are typically used in contexts of great uncertainty, such as large construction and infrastructure projects that are realized over a longer period of time. Hence, a major challenge in PPPs is to keep construction progress cost-efficient and on schedule, under continuously changing circumstances. One way to achieve this is through clever contracting, by proactively anticipating potential change in the planning phase and providing flexible contract mechanisms that enable an effective response. The purpose of this article is to discuss potential changes and the subsequent requirement of flexibility in PPP contracts. By flexibility, we mean the ability of the contract to deal with changing circumstances. We set out to do so by studying the available literature on the subject and by analysing the case study of the Blankenburgverbinding in the Netherlands, a Design, Build, Finance and Maintain (DBFM) project that is currently in its planning phase based on 32 interviews. Our main findings are that the timely and accurate recognition of potential changes, combined with the availability of flexible coping mechanisms, provide the stakeholders with a better understanding of the challenges they face in realizing their aims in the pre-contract phase of projects. This understanding helps to better prepare a PPP contract for potential changes.
Transport infrastructure networks are currently being challenged by rapidly changing contexts, such as climate change, new IT and mobility technologies, ageing infrastructure, demographic changes and growing engagement of stakeholders. These challenges call for an adaptive management approach in infrastructure planning. Apart from making the physical infrastructure more adaptive, organisational adaptive capacity is currently being discussed in both literature and practice. The literature describes learning as one of the key elements of organisational adaptive capacity. However, it remains unclear how infrastructure network agencies learn. Most of these agencies are organised in a project-oriented way. Projects can be considered as information exchange platforms of individuals that have to align their knowledge and interpretations to collectively make sense of this information to deliver a project-result. However, projects operate relatively autonomously from their parent organisation. This article aims to enhance the understanding of how projects learn from each other and how the parent organisation learns from projects and vice versa. To this end, we have conducted an in-depth case study of a typical project-oriented organisation in infrastructure planning: Rijkswaterstaat—the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands. Data was collected through documents and semi-structured interviews with members of a selection of projects of Rijkswaterstaat and other members of this organisation. We used Social Network Analysis to support the analysis of the data. Subsequently, the results were confronted with literature to understand how collective learning occurs in project-oriented organisations.
Formal and informal institutions help shape processes of planning, as 'rules of the game'. However, institutions do not always align. As a result of changes in strategy and operation, institutional incongruence can emerge as old and new institutions conflict or as actors perceive and apply institutions in a different manner. In this article, we aim to gain insight in the concept of institutional incongruence and the way it shapes transport planning policy and implementation. To this end, we analyse the role of institutional congruence in the case of land use transport integration (LUTI) in the Netherlands. Although LUTI creates opportunities for beneficial synergies and helps avoid unwanted consequences, such as project time and project cost overruns, examples of successful deployment remain scarce. Through an institutional analysis of the Dutch national Planning, Programming and Budgeting (PPB) System for road infrastructure, we assess the ways in which LUTI is enabled or obstructed by formal and informal institutions. The one-year research project involves a triangulation of literature research, policy analysis, 22 expert interviews, focus groups and workshops. The findings illustrate that strategy and operation each present distinct formal and informal institutional incongruence that negatively influence land-use transport integration. We conclude that institutional incongruence is several instances of institutional incongruence can be found throughout the Dutch national planning process. These are partly inevitable because institutional change occurs gradually to reflect developments in society and manifests itself in both formal and informal rules. Therefore we recommend that, in order to achieve LUTI, the full institutional configuration of formal and informal rules, at strategic and operational level should be analysed, redesigned and aligned.
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