Policy Network Management for Governmental Projects in the U.S.: The Case of the Smart Road Location and Design

This case study examines how and why the policy network of a state agency in the U.S. formed and changed over time in the context of local opposition to the location and design of a road. It also explores how state-level administrators in that state dealt with these network dynamics to overcome local opposition. In setting up and carrying out the “Smart Road” project, the Salem District Office under the Virginia Department of Transportation had vertical and horizontal ties with numerous actors with stakes in the project. These linkages varied in the degrees of cooperativeness and interdependence between those actors and the agency. Network stability was mostly developed and sustained by actors with whom the agency had both cooperative and interdependent relationships, but unequal relationships in interdependence easily reduced the degrees of cooperativeness and finally undermined network stability. The role of administrators who were charged with external relations was to scrutinize network changes and to maintain network stability by promoting the trust and cooperation of other actors.