Frank Adarkwa

Graduation Semester and Year

2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Public Policy

Department

Urban and Public Affairs

First Advisor

Ardeshir Anjomani

Abstract

The evaluation of road transportation projects has always been undertaken based on engineering and economic criteria. Road transportation projects are selected based on their significant impacts on key performance measures such as safety and travel time. In recent years, emphasis has been placed on the social and economic impacts of road transportation projects and how they affect members of society rather than the users of roads (Transportation Research Board, 2011). The provision of appropriate and effective road facilities is of the utmost importance in order to achieve well-functioning roads in terms of safety, capacity, user comfort, and minimized environmental impacts. However, these road projects sometimes have social, economic, and spatial effects that adversely impact project communities (Transportation Research Board, 2011). This is significantly important in developing countries where these effects are deemed to be secondary or even tertiary (Markovich & Lucas, 2011). This qualitative study adopts a grounded theory approach to gain a good understanding of the social, economic, and spatial impacts of road improvement on project communities. This approach was designed to encourage the researcher’s persistent interaction with the collected data while remaining constantly involved with the emerging analysis. A qualitative approach was adopted to allow respondents to freely express their views in a variety of ways, rather than using a quantitative approach that could confine the responses of participants or pose self-presentation biases (Chatterton et al., 2009; Whitmarsh, 2009). Through the process of open coding, axial coding, and constant comparison, this study revealed several themes (codes), the majority of which were consistent with issues found in the existing literature. The study revealed that the highway improvement has brought benefits such as reduced traffic congestion, increased travel speeds, and improvement to the aesthetic nature of project communities. However, the study further revealed some adverse social, economic, and spatial impacts on project communities. Based on the study, these adverse impacts emerged at the post-construction phase. The study revealed that had these adverse social, economic, and spatial impacts been given the required attention during the planning process, most of these could have been reduced, avoided, or mitigated.

Keywords

Road, Capacity, Improvements, Adverse, Impacts, Ghana

Disciplines

Public Affairs | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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