Towards a programme-oriented planning approach

Infrastructure planning is confronted with increasing complexities. The traditional project-oriented planning approach is struggling to deal with these complexities. This results in frequent budget and time overruns and the fact that many projects do not live up to expectations. In order to deal with these complexities and to improve infrastructure project delivery, several options have been suggested in literature. Recently, the use of programmes in infrastructure planning has also been suggested among these initiatives as a viable planning approach. To date, however, limited insight is available in this relatively new planning approach. The wide variety of programmes, particularly in Dutch infrastructure planning practice, makes that it almost appears as if all that is required for a programme to be considered a programme, is to be labelled as such. This study therefore aims to provide deeper insight into the characteristics of a programme-oriented planning approach, the way it deals with the complexities in infrastructure planning, and provides directions for the development and design of future programmes in infrastructure planning practice.