Context Adaptation in Public Administration Change Processes: A Case Within the Swedish Transport Administration

Benefits of biofuels in Sweden: A probabilistic re-assessment of the index of new cars’ climate impact

The Swedish Transport Administration manages approximately 17,000 road bridges and 4000 railway bridges. This paper will describe some ongoing research projects and a look into the future. The rapid technological development opens up opportunities for new innovative ways of managing bridges e.g. drones used to inspect bridges and BIM to store the data from building, maintaining, and inspections of bridges. Swedish Transport Administration are financing and participating in several research and development projects that deal with inspection, monitoring, and managing of bridges and other infrastructure. This paper will describe some of the initiatives that have the largest potential to improve asset management in the future. The first project presented is a project called HDMI. The project started as a first step towards using BIM in Swedish Transport Administrations bridge maintenance and not just for the building stage. Some of the findings of the project will be presented. The second project is called StegA. The purpose of the project was to provide an overview of various possibilities that are available for data that is produced during measurements, checks, operation, etc. and is connected to the correct object or roads/ railways) or position in the landscape. This is data that is common today produced for a specific purpose but which has great potential to be used from a broader perspective. In the third project presented, five large bridges were inspected with drones. The project started for the Swedish Transport Administration to learn the benefits and disadvantages compared with a visual inspection.

Despite extensive grouting efforts to prevent water from leaking into tunnels, water seepages remain. When exposed to freezing temperatures, ice formations occur. During the winter, the Swedish Transport Administration's railway tunnels are affected by major problems caused by ice, such as icicles from roof and walls, ice loads on installations, ice-covered tracks and roads, etc. To ensure safety and prevent traffic disruptions, many tunnels require extensive maintenance. Improved knowledge about frost penetration in tunnels is required to reduce maintenance of the tunnels. Frost insulated drain mats are often used at leakage spots to prevent ice formation along the tunnels. To find out which parts of a tunnel are exposed to freezing temperatures, the University of Gävle and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm conducted a laboratory model test on behalf of the Swedish National Rail Administration (now the Swedish Transport Administration). The laboratory model test aimed to find a method to determine the expected temperature conditions along a tunnel to decide which parts of the tunnel require frost insulation to protect the drainage system from freezing and prevent ice formation. To evaluate the laboratory model test, the Swedish Transport Administration in collaboration with Luleå University of Technology have performed field surveys in two Swedish railway tunnels. The field measurements involved monitoring temperatures in air, rock surfaces and rock mass, as well as measuring wind direction, wind and air velocity and air pressure. The measurements in the tunnels show that the frost penetrates further into the tunnels than was expected from the laboratory model test, which was based on a completely uninsulated tunnel. Frost insulated drains do not only prevent the cold air from reaching the rock mass, but also prevent the rock from emitting geothermal heat that warms up the cold tunnel air. Consequently, the frost penetrates further into the tunnel than it would do if the heat from the rock mass was allowed to warm up the outside air on its way into the tunnel. The number of frost insulated drains and how much of the tunnel walls and roof are covered thereby affect the length of the frost penetration.


 
 
 The long-term outcomes of reform processes in the public sector remain understudied in the literature. This study investigates the Swedish Transport Administration (STA) employees’ and managers’ translation and internalization of their new role as societal developers. Since the STA’s founding in 2010 and until 2018, the STA head office neither guided nor centrally determined how to define and understand the STA’s role as a societal developer. We examine this internalization process through the lens of Czarniawska’s translation model of the distribution of ideas as a collective creation through local translation and adaptation. The study shows that the ongoing friction that occurs when the concept and role of a societal developer are discussed and disseminated within an organization is influenced by prevailing identities and local action nets. It also shows that the translation of this new role eventually failed, due to either it being submerged within already-existing concepts or it having a perceived lack of relevance. We conducted this mixed-method study over six years (2016–2021) using documentary analysis, workshop participation, interviews and a survey.
 
 

Capacity Issues in Sweden - Applications and Research

The Swedish Transport Administration (STA) work to reduce the number of suicides in the transport system. Fatalities, i.e., on roads, railways, and bridges, originate from either accidents or suicides, natural death excluded. Knowing the correct manner of death is needed to work with optimal prevention strategies. The aims are to separate fatalities due to suicides, follow the development, and implement measures for suicide prevention. Methods are developed for suicide classification and criteria for the selection in which suicides were suspected. Fatalities in level one and two of five were classified as suicides. Data from the STA’s databases are used and so are data from the psychosocial investigations done by a trained investigator in the topic and with clinical experience from counselling at hospitals. 2129 persons died on the roads in Sweden, 10% (206 persons) were classified as suicides. 336 persons died after being hit by trains, 85% (284 persons) were suicides. 130 persons died by jumping from bridges.The number of suicides increases with population density. Suicide in the transport system is a major problem; firstly personal tragedies, it is also a work environment problem for truck and train drivers and for the emergency staff. It generates delays and costs for passenger and cargo transport. By analyzing the results of countermeasures in the form of obstructive barriers, the physical environment can be improved and high-risk areas can be accentuated. Restricting access to the means of suicide is important in suicide prevention. Strategies for the STA include suicide prevention in the design of new roads, railways, and bridges, as well as by identifying and reducing existing high-risk locations. Sharing the results with other authorities and organizations and cooperation within suicide prevention missions are vital for the enhancement of the overall suicide prevention work in society.

Barriers to spurring innovation in Swedish transport infrastructure construction

The Linked Data approach in data publishing allows the users and their data-driven applications to have broader use cases which encompass various data sources, either publicly available on the Web, or in private repositories. The use of W3C standards in publishing such data enables uniform access across platforms. Transport information today has higher importance to the citizens and society than ever and accessing the right information at the right time can improve the quality of everyday life for many people in the world. In this paper, we describe our approach of building a system for automated Linked Data generation from the transportation domain. We used the data from the Swedish Transport Administration (STA) as a specific case study. For the purpose of RDF annotation, we developed the Transport Administration Ontology (TAO). The resulting five-star data enables advanced use case scenarios over the original STA data, which we also demonstrate with our web application.

Introduction The traditional view of doctoral education, borrowed from the social sciences, is the reproduction of the professoriate to ensure continued knowledge development through research and the dissemination of knowledge through teaching. In other words, the traditional purpose of doctoral education is the creation of a new generation of scholars who will pursue careers in academe. This is clearly not the reality of doctoral education in public administration as it has evolved. Consider the following facts based on more than ten years of research in the doctoral education field. 1. The vast majority of people obtaining the doctoral degree never publish anything that contributes to the knowledge base of the field. 2. Only a minority of doctoral graduates enters careers in academe. The majority of graduates appear to remain in professional positions. 3. The quality of dissertation research has been viewed as questionable by any standards of quantitative or qualitative research. 4. Many faculty positions are being filled by individuals trained in other fields. The Purpose of Doctoral Education in Public Administration What is the purpose of doctoral education in public administration? We can begin to answer this question by addressing the motives of students entering doctoral programs. Research suggests that only a handful of students are interested in traditional academic careers involving research, teaching, and service. On average, according to recent National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) surveys, at least 250 students graduate each year with a doctoral degree in public administration or public affairs. While there certainly are not that many open faculty positions in any given year, we note that many programs are hiring faculty from other disciplines (e.g., political science, economics, policy studies, social work, business, management, etc.). These hires are not from the 250+ average number of public administration graduates. This disparity in hiring also suggests that public administration programs are not producing enough graduates who are competitive and interested in the academic marketplace. This seems ironic in light of our suspicion that there is indeed a demand for doctoral graduates in public administration, as evidenced by regular multiple listings in the Public Administration Times and the Political Science Recruiter. Indeed, some institutions have had considerable difficulty hiring qualified new faculty members in certain core subfields. We believe that the majority of doctoral students in public administration are the degree for nontraditional purposes. We can speculate on five of those purposes: 1) to enhance one's professional practice in administrative or policy settings; 2) to inflate one's ego; 3) to gain a promotion or be retained in a position; 4) to enhance the likelihood of getting consulting grants or contracts; 5) because it may be advantageous to say, very loosely, that one is a candidate for or is pursuing the doctoral degree, even while lacking sufficient motivation to ever complete the degree. The first purpose is certainly justified, and we suspect that many of our colleagues would agree (see: Clayton, 1995; Sherwood, 1996; and Hambrick, 1997). The other four purposes are, in our opinion, simply not legitimate and waste scarce educational resources. Indeed, the 10:1 ratio of doctoral enrollees to graduates argues, somewhat disturbingly, for the fifth possibility. Public administration at the doctoral level can be both an academic and a professional degree. It has served the purposes of future academicians and continuing professionals for many years. There is a rationale for serving the interests of continuing professionals, and by providing them with knowledge and skills beyond the Master's level we add some value to the practice of public administration. …

Background: Digital transformation has emerged as an important theme in contemporary organisational studies, particularly within public sector institutions striving to enhance operational efficiency, improve service delivery, and foster innovation. This study aimed to explore the experiences of key actors within the Swedish Transport Administration, focusing on the challenges and opportunities associated with digital transformation. The research questions were as follows: (1) How do key actors perceive the effectiveness of the organisation’s management control systems in supporting digitalisation efforts? (2) What challenges and opportunities do key actors identify in the project management approach for implementing digital transformation initiatives? (3) How do key actors view the alignment between project-level goals and the Administration’s overarching strategic goals for digitalisation? Methods: The study employed a qualitative approach, conducting semi-structured interviews (n = 18) with participants from the Administration. Data from the interviews were analysed using an open coding approach. Results: The findings revealed that (1) respondents favour a more centralised and cohesive approach to management control, (2) there is a notable lack of expertise in change management, and (3) alignment between strategic and project-level objectives is insufficient, creating challenges in ensuring consistency and coherence in the implementation of digitalisation efforts. Conclusions: The results shed light on issues regarding management control, prioritisation, and the coordination of digitalisation efforts within a public sector administration.

The Swedish Transport Administration’s (STA) vision is to make the good journey possible by providing individuals and the business community with the best options for transport and travel. The STA has divided their clients into various customer groups depending on their needs and demands for the good journey. The tourism industry is one of the major strategic customer groups identified by the STA. The demands and needs from the tourism industry have been described in a customer group document. The tourism industry is dependent on good road services and sign-posting. It must be made easy for the tourist to find their way to their destination and also made possible to find and use environmentally friendly options for their travel needs. STA can in the best way possible meet the demands and needs from the tourist industry by enhancing the tourist signs and information along the roads, by developing dialogue between the tourist industry and STA and by supporting mobility management. The STA has worked together with the tourism industry on a national and regional level in order to enhance the possibility for regional development of the tourism industry. We have found that a lot more can be done if we increase the knowledge and coordination of issues important for tourism development. In this paper we will describe the tools and methods used to create a strategy for the tourism industry. The survey has been divided into three different steps, which are: state of the art, co-operation with the tourism industry and economic analysis and effects describing the tourism industry. The tourism strategy will help the SRA to clarify the goal for our services and co-operation with the tourism industry and to identify key areas for achieving our goal.

Currently in Sweden, the life-cycle measures applied on bridge edge beams may take up to 60% of the total costs incurred along the road bridges’ life span. Moreover, significant disturbances for the road users are caused. Therefore, the Swedish Transport Administration has started a project to develop alternative edge beam design solutions that are better for society in terms of cost. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether these proposals can qualify for more detailed studies through an evaluation and comparison based on a comprehensive life-cycle cost analysis. The alternatives including the standard design are applied to typical Swedish bridges. The impact of the values of the parameters with the largest influence is investigated by sensitivity analyses. Results with different life-cycle strategies are shown. The positive influences in the total life-cycle cost of a stainless steel reinforced solution and of the enhanced construction technique are estimated. The concrete edge beam integrated with the deck seems to be favourable, which is in line with international experience observed. Different designs may be appropriate depending on the bridge case and the life-cycle strategy. The Swedish Transport Administration will carry out a demonstration project in a bridge with one of the proposals.

If every driver in Sweden were to obey the speed limits there would be more than 100 lives spared each year. Every reduction of 1 km/h on average speed in the country saves approximately 20 lives per year (SRA 2015). One of many important measures in the later road safety work in Sweden is a project attempting to reduce speed, namely the implementation of speed cameras. Without a comprehensive increase in traffic surveillance it is difficult to achieve traffic safety (VTI 2005). The Swedish Road Administration together with the National Police Board put up the first speed cameras, or road safety cameras, in the late 1990’s and at the end of 2014 there were 1200 cameras monitoring 3000 kilometer of road stretches in Sweden. Before deciding where to install the road safety cameras the Swedish road traffic crash- and injury surveillance system, STRADA, was used to spot where accidents happened most frequently. STRADA is also a tool in the follow up work when evaluating the effects of the road safety cameras. The road safety camera project has been and still is a successful road safety work. When looking at data from STRADA from three examples (road 222, 225 and 268) of the approximately 120 roads with speed cameras one can see, when comparing a four year period before and after speed cameras, fatal accidents was reduced from a total of 8 to 3, and accidents with serious injuries as an outcome was reduced from 65 to 28. The road safety cameras have reduced the average speed on roads with cameras with 5% and are now appreciated to save up 20 lives and up to 50 persons from being seriously injured per year in Sweden. Speed monitoring with road safety cameras has shown to be a successful way of reducing speed and save lives on Swedish roads. Every year the cameras prevent 20 people from being killed in traffic and 50 persons are prevented from being seriously injured. In order to evaluate road safety work such as speed cameras there has to be measurements made before and after the intervention. Using data from STRADA has both been contributing to the foundation of the road safety camera project and also one of the important tools for follow up.

Predicting and communicating flood risk of transport infrastructure based on watershed characteristics

ABSTRACTPlanning of transport infrastructure in Sweden has undergone successive legislative changes as well as neoliberal corporatization and marketization reforms in recent years, with a general aim to increase efficiency and effectiveness. This paper presents planning practitioners’ experiences of far-reaching marketization of physical planning practice in line with a strategy within the Swedish Transport Administration (STA) to become a ‘Pure Purchaser’. The strategy implies that all practical planning work should be carried out by procured consultants. The paper follows a qualitative, explorative approach based on document studies and interviews with practitioners actively involved in carrying out physical planning of road and rail investments. The concept of ‘modes of governance’ is applied to highlight and analytically interpret differences in perspectives on efficient and effective governance as expressed in the planning legislation, and the STA marketization strategy, respectively. The empirical results make evident that the recent marketization reforms are generally perceived as strongly and negatively affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of planning practices while also circumscribing professional discretion. The study highlights the importance of specific organization and management perspectives as explanatory factors in studying efficiency and effectiveness of planning practices.