Success criteria of toll road projects from a community societal perspective

Purpose: While the success of the toll road projects procured through public private partnerships (PPPs) routes are widely confined to the cost, time and quality performance in the delivery context, considerable evidence suggests that such success criteria are not sufficient when the toll road projects are assessed in relation to meeting the long-run community expectations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors associated with the success of the toll road projects from a societal perspective in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the input from 12 experts and a rigorous literature review, a questionnaire survey was designed and a total of 206 respondents from three broad stakeholders’ groups, namely, government, private and end-users’ communities were surveyed to measure the performance of eight toll road projects. The data were primarily analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and reliability test using SPSS Software. Findings: Four significant factors associated with the project social benefit were established as a measure of the overall success criteria in toll road projects. It is expected these can be used as guidance to deliver project social benefit to the community in the overall project lifecycle. Research limitations/implications: This research contributes to the incorporation of social project benefit attributes to the the toll road projects’ success criteria in overall project lifecycle. Practical implications: This study can be used as guidance for the overall stakeholders, such as the government and the project manager to address the current social problems and better navigate the project direction in order to achieve the overall toll road project success in the overall project lifecycles. Social implications: The research highlights how the Indonesian government’s program of developing toll road projects using the PPP procurement routes can be supported for complete social inclusivity by considering the social dimension to achieve long-term success. Originality/value: Identification of the key project social factors based on the data set with a wide representation of the stakeholders has made the research original and unique.