Enhancing Project Outcomes through Strategic Public Engagement and Partnering

Summary

In this Risk Management Insights series, we're highlighting our risk management experts and strategies for helping clients navigate uncertainties across various project delivery models. Our final article of the series explores ATCS' experience in helping owners navigate public engagement for successful project delivery through strategic communications, outreach, and partnerships.

Know the Needs

From the outset of any transportation project, it is critical to understand the transportation needs across all modes and communities. A thorough analysis of the existing transportation network—its functionality, challenges, and plans—provides a foundation for developing strong partnerships across the transportation delivery system and managing risks from possible public opposition.

Know the Players

Direct Impact Communities

Direct impact communities are often the most vocal, passionate, and organized opposition to transportation improvement projects. The concerns of a community or individual property owner can end up involving news media, elected officials, and agency leadership – adding cost, time, and stress to already complex projects. In practice, billion-dollar megaprojects include hundreds of property impacts and hyper-local concerns that must be managed through design and construction.

Engaging these communities early in the project design process by listening, understanding, and actively working to address their concerns is crucial to gaining support from the broader region. Although it is not always possible to satisfy all concerns, transparently communicating the feasible outcomes can manage expectations and build trust in these communities and with their elected officials.

Where full mitigation is not possible, options like moving a soundwall, shifting a shared-use path, or adjusting project plantings can help reduce impacts and show that the project is responding to the community. Establishing strong relationships based on transparency and responsiveness can carry over to the construction phase when project impacts become real.

ATCS’ best practices for proactive and ongoing public engagement include:

• Establish early communication with direct impact communities to proactively identify potential concerns, identify possible alternatives, and set reasonable expectations.
• Maintain a consistent schedule for project updates, check-ins, and critical decisions and identify effective communication channels between the project team and the community.
• Engage directly with local elected officials and staff to keep them informed and aligned with project goals.
• Meet community members when and where you can best engage them, such as traditional HOA meetings, field visits, and one-on-one virtual sessions with project subject matter experts.

Special Interest Groups

Special interest groups in a region may also question or oppose certain types of transportation improvements. Identifying and understanding their priorities, concerns, and goals can help when developing a transportation improvement strategy and communications and outreach plan for the project. The interplay between land use and transportation, along with understanding regional plans and transportation goals, can be a critical component. Through effective engagement, a project owner may be able to identify future transit hubs that influence corridor access plans, as demonstrated in the Transform 66 Inside and Outside the Beltway project in Northern Virginia.

ATCS’ best practices for proactive and ongoing public engagement include:

• Communicate with and engage local elected and appointed officials to keep them informed and aligned with project goals.
• Identify and tailor communications and outreach methodologies to audiences, including historically underrepresented populations, to foster collaboration and gather diverse inputs.
• Offer individual community meetings at convenient times and locations to meet people where they are.

Local Transportation Providers

Local agencies and organizations likely already provide transportation services and engage in future planning efforts for the project area. By openly and proactively communicating with key staff, the project owner can gather critical transportation information and coordinate efforts across agencies, audiences, and travel modes to build early consensus and support. Information gathered at the project’s outset can help formulate a comprehensive transportation plan during project planning, development, and implementation.

Continuous communication with these groups throughout the project helps keep goals current and aligned and provides built-in adaptability. For example, adding a shared-use bicycle and pedestrian facility along a busy interstate corridor may increase the project footprint. However, when supported across a region, a multimodal approach can better meet the needs in a corridor and grow consensus during project implementation.

Additional best practices include:

• Establish working groups with regular meeting schedules to provide updates and solicit input from key interested parties.
• Incorporate local transportation objectives into project goals, where feasible, to ensure unified planning efforts.
• Develop and foster partnerships with local agencies and organizations to pursue shared goals and facilitate coordinated action.
• Leverage a combination of traditional and innovative engagement tools, including current and emerging technology where practical, to reach more people and enable them to participate where, when, and in a manner that is comfortable and convenient for them.
• Demonstrate how community input has helped shape the development and design of project plans.

 

Shaping the Future of Project Success

Successful project delivery requires effective communication, meaningful engagement, and collaboration across various partners, organizations, and communities. Building consensus and establishing trust is essential for managing the complexities and uncertainties inherent in any project.

At ATCS, we partner with owners to develop and deliver comprehensive strategies that actively engage a wide array of audiences, often with varied and competing interests, ensuring alignment between project goals and community needs. This targeted approach provides our clients with a strategic advantage, helping them gather valuable input, build support, and enhance project outcomes, ultimately leading to more resilient and successful project delivery.

Strengthen your project’s outcomes with trusted, effective program management and public engagement. Connect with our team members:

Explore content from our entire Risk Management Insights series:

• Strategic Risk Management: Navigating Project Phases Successfully. read now >
• Risk Visualization: A Game-Changer for Risk Management. read now >