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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

A comparative report of the dialogue in three road projects

Kolmen tiehankkeen vuoropuhelun vertailuraportti

In this report the dialogues in three road projects have been compared: The EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) and general motorway planning of Main Road 7 between Hamina and Vaalimaa, the EIA and general planning of the by-pass of Main Road 19 with median barriers in Seinäjoki and the road planning of the motorway on the Koskenkylä-Loviisa-Kotka sections of Main Road 7. Several possibilities for citizen participation were organised in all of the projects. After completion of the plans, a dialogue inquiry was sent to all parties and planners and a few land owners were interviewed. During the selection of alternatives for terrain corridors (EIA) the parties were most motivated by the desire to influence. When the terrain corridor had been chosen, the motivation for participation was the hope of obtaining information about the project. In Seinäjoki, the wish to influence was further emphasized after the completion of the general plan, since a large part of the parties did not accept the planned road alignment. According to the respondents, the best participation methods were the ones used in the projects at the given time. The familiar general meeting was considered the best method. Walks in the terrain and workshops also gained support. Those who were unable to attend the meetings or who live outside the project area put particular emphasis on the importance of Internet pages and electronic information (mailing lists). The participation in all of the road project dialogues was active. The quality of the interaction and information as well as especially the effectiveness of participation was assessed as the poorest in the Seinäjoki project. The most important reason for this was that no alternative road alignments had been examined in the Seinäjoki problem area, since the area for the bypass had already been reserved a couple of years earlier in the approved general plan. New detached houses had been built on both sides of the area reserved for the road in accordance with the plan and the exceptional permit, which resulted in very little slack in the road planning. The site buyers had not received sufficient information about the area reservation. Normally, inhabitants are not aware of the fact that the road alignment is settled in connection with the area planning years before the actual planning of the road is activated. It would be important to increase the cooperation regarding land use planning and road planning and to schedule them to the same time and process. In all road projects the present Main Road was considered problematic. In the Main Road 7 projects the inhabitants were frequent users of the present road, whereas in Seinäjoki the participants mostly live in the vicinity of the planned road and found that the road mainly entailed drawbacks. When the project brought about both benefits and drawbacks, the participants considered the dialogue to be more positive than in projects which according to the most of the participants only resulted in disadvantages to them. Regional and cultural differences may also affect the dialogue, as well as the personal qualities of the participants in the dialogue. Overall the inhabitants were satisfied with the road planners, but in the Seinäjoki and Koskenkylä-Loviisa-Kotka projects the inhabitants were to a larger extent disappointed with the local authority representatives. In all the projects some of the participants reported that the dialogue had improved as the project progressed. From the planners' point of view the dialogue improved the acceptability of the project and provided important local information about the project. The dialogue increased the participants' mutual understanding and improved reliability. Several suggestions, based on the research made, were put forward to improve the dialogue in road projects. This report may be found at http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/julkaisut/pdf3/lts_2010-31_kolmen_tiehankkeen_web.pdf

Language

  • Finnish

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01334363
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Finnish Transport Agency
  • ISBN: 978-952-255-566-3
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Mar 28 2011 2:35PM