Community Engagement
Our businesses have long and proud histories of strengthening ties with, and positively contributing to, their local communities.
Our roadways strengthen the connectivity of people and communities. Motorways improve traffic flow and assist decongestion in urban areas, offering well maintained, reliable networks diverting both light and heavy vehicle traffic from local roads.
Our businesses are committed to limiting the potential negative impacts of their activities on local communities. However, motorways also have the potential for negative impacts such as noise, air and light pollution, which could directly affect the quality of life of local residents near motorways. Infrastructure development or maintenance works can cause disruptions outside the motorway network, especially when they require route changes. Adherence to regulatory obligations ensures potential impacts on local communities can be identified, assessed and appropriately mitigated, while still enabling ongoing improvements to motorway infrastructure that respect the local environment and community expectations.
All our businesses enable direct contact from people within local communities through their websites and in person through customer service centres and offices.
Engagement and consultation with affected communities, including local authorities, is extremely important, particularly during the design and construction phases of projects. Of AtlasArteria’s businesses, APRR has the most new projects and as such, has an established and rigorous framework for community consultation that aligns with both regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations.
APRR Community Consultation Framework
Consultation, through the regulatory public inquiry process, makes it possible to explain a project to local communities, collect their observations and to identify their concerns. Feedback can be obtained via different channels, including public meetings, e-mail, post, registers in town halls, or on a dedicated project website. Following consultation, a report is prepared responding to any community concerns raised and, depending on the project, a further period of consultation may be established before regulatory authorisations to start work can be finalised. If there are still concerns, local communities can also appeal those authorisations.
During the implementation of a project, APRR ensures continuous communication, and if necessary, active consultation, in particular through direct exchanges with the local communities and through a dedicated project website. There may also be opportunities for communities to attend information sessions on specific topics.
Once a project has been completed, APRR continues its engagement with local authorities, monitoring the project’s performance against agreed criteria. This ongoing monitoring ensures that the commitments made, particularly those relating to the impact on local communities, are respected throughout the duration of operations.