Data driven planning and approval processes of public road construction projects

Planning and approval processes in Germany still take many years in some cases. According to the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport digitalization must be used to pick up the pace and achieve progress. In this context, digital methods and applications such as a Common Data Environment (CDE) promise to accelerate and increase the efficiency of road construction projects. This paper first provides an illustration of the main purposes and functions of a CDE. This includes an in‐depth study of current national and international regulations. Subsequently, challenges and optimization opportunities related to the planning and approval process are identified. To this purpose, a quantitative research approach questioning employees from state and federal road construction administrations is carried out. This study identifies improvement potentials through a CDE application especially regarding tracing and transparency. According to the study, the planning and approval process needs to get digitalized, simplified and shorten. Therefore, future research needs to address the question of how to implement a cross‐country CDE for planning and approval processes that interfaces with various state and federal systems without displacing them.