Sustainable Engineering Process

Public Involvement

What Is It?

Public involvement is the process of seeking the input of project stakeholders in key project decisions regarding project planning, design, construction, operations or maintenance of transportation and other forms of public investments. Public involvement in infrastructure development is an important means of ensuring that public investments meet the immediate and long term needs of those who depend on it. Similarly, public involvement is assures that public infrastructure is developed, designed, operated and maintained in a manner that avoids or minimizes impact to valued environmental, community, cultural and other important resources. Public involvement is vital to achieving sustainability because it assures that environmental, equity, and efficiency standards are defined within the context of the users and affected stakeholders.

How To

Public involvement in project development and implementation is not a one-size-fits-all process. A distinct Public Involvement Plan is developed for each individual project that defines public involvement goals for the project, the project stakeholders, tools and techniques for involving the stakeholders at key project decision milestones, and criteria for measuring the success of the public involvement process.