A watershed moment for transportation stakeholder engagement

Transportation project development rarely experiences a watershed moment. Due to the nature of the business most changes are gradual, incrementally increasing efficiencies or adjusting workflows over time. Recently this dramatically changed.

Stakeholder engagement is a critical part of transportation project development. Federal and state codes require public engagement to acquire the needed easements and rights-of-way to build and maintain public transportation assets. Legally this establishes a public need and enables Eminent Domain, which is the government’s right to expropriate private property for public use with fair compensation. But stakeholder engagement is so much more than a formality to check a legal box. It should not be discrete discussions at a Citizens Information Meeting or Public Hearing, but rather an ongoing conversation throughout the life of the project. Most organizations recognize the substantial benefits of more comprehensive and intentional efforts. These outreach opportunities are the basis for community engagement where you can mitigate risks, engender support, and promote cooperation during design and construction.

At its core, stakeholder engagement is where organizations build trust and manage community expectations. It also allows achieving inclusivity, encouraging community participation, and provides a platform upon which consensus can be built. Success relies on honest communications, timely and transparent presentation of accurate project information, and truly listening to the public’s input. Most stakeholders want to be heard, understood, and have their ideas considered. While these fundamentals remain true, the methods by which we achieve them are radically changing.

The reality is stakeholder expectations are rising. Some of this is due to accessibility of information and social media’s integral place in our societal fabric. Another reason is the general acceptance that the purpose of transportation projects now extends beyond connecting people, products, and places. Success criteria such as social justice, responsible environmental stewardship, and community transformation are mobilizing passions and bringing new stakeholders into the conversation.

While internet and social media provide new pathways to connect to the public, it was the Covid pandemic that forced a paradigm shift. Seemingly overnight, there were restrictions prohibiting in-person public meetings. Out of necessity, organizations scrambled to pivot their long-established practices and processes, hurriedly restructuring their outreach to utilize a wide spectrum of virtual platforms. Now that life is returning to normal, the industry should take a deep breath and determine how best to move forward.

Virtual engagement brought many benefits, often including greater accessibility and increased participation. However, these gains came with some growing pains, and perhaps did not adequately replace the human connections from in-person interactions. So how does the industry and your organization strategically implement a coordinated, multi-platform approach that combines virtual and in-person components to all projects in your programs and portfolio? Generally speaking, challenges we face as an industry can be divided into three categories: technical, external, and internal.

Organizations will require technical solutions, including robust and dynamic systems to track individual and collective stakeholder engagement across platforms. This should capture and prioritize feedback across time based upon stakeholder metadata, such as contact information and other project specific categories (e.g. – adjacent land owners, HOA member, local business owner, etc.). Systems would ideally assist the organization in discerning the power, legitimacy, and urgency of each position.

Forward thinking project managers and organizations want to leverage this data to prioritize feedback and more effectively tailor responses. There is also an organizational need for resources to stand up and support multi-platform initiatives. Concurrent with these technical advances, the organization may need to review its workflows to ensure accurate and consistent messaging.

"It is clear we have crossed the Rubicon. Stakeholder engagement moving forward should include virtual and in-person components" 

The big picture of the transportation game is to have the right money in the right place at the right time so the pipeline of projects can be predictably developed and delivered. Thinking externally, organizations will need to balance project resources and constraints with increased stakeholder expectations. While some projects may warrant a fully interactive virtual public hearing and dedicated website; others will not. What is the new baseline of effort? How is it decided, and by whom? Can it even yet be established, or is still a case-by-case decision? In the same state, the content, frequency, and quality of virtual engagement in affluent urban areas may significantly differ from that in rural areas where internet availability is limited and the community prefers in-person interactions.

Embracing these changes also represents significant internal workflow adjustments within transportation organizations. This goes beyond the immediate need for graphics and data specialists. There is an old engineering adage that says, “We can do anything with enough time and money.” Increasing the quality and frequency of virtual stakeholder engagement is certainly possible, but only with real project schedule and budget considerations. This is particularly challenging for projects that are already active. It is common to underestimate the amount of time required by the Project Manager and development team to engage and respond to a comprehensive stakeholder engagement plan. . Appropriate change management procedures should be followed that properly adjusts the project’s triple constraint of budget, scope, and schedule. In order to be successful, each organization should intentionally decide how to accommodate these project impacts.

It is clear we have crossed the Rubicon. Stakeholder engagement moving forward should include virtual and in-person components. What this hybrid approach looks like, and how it is implemented, may not be readily standardized in your organization or in the industry. As responsible public stewards, we must balance the benefits of a comprehensive, multi-platform approach with the realities of diminishing returns at the project, program, and portfolio levels. Schedule and budget constraints dictate organizations can’t be everything to everyone; however, we should strive to be effective. Organizations should focus on the noble purpose of stakeholder outreach, and then tailor their approaches to the specific project and affected communities to best leverage the strengths of all available platforms and outlets to responsibly accomplish the overarching objectives.