The new Dutch design guidelines for motorways (to be published towards the end of 2005) will get a character entirely different from previous editions. The two main reasons for this change are the wish of Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch road authority) to renew the challenge for the motorway designer, and the need for more transparent decisions during the process of road planning and designing. The new design guidelines will contain two sections. One section will describe the roles, tasks and responsibilities in the larger part of the process of realizing a motorway, from the early planning stages to detailed design specification. The other section is meant to provide the operational motorway designer with a toolbox, including a manual on how to use that toolbox. The new motorway design guidelines are meant to facilitate every design action regarding the motorway network, such as designing an entirely new road, regular widening of existing roads, utilization of an existing road or temporary roadwork stretches. The new motorway design guidelines take a different approach towards context sensitive road design. Former editions of the guidelines focused on an ideal situation, but the current practice in the Netherlands is that road design is a matter of what is possible under limiting circumstances. Before implementing this approach, the study 'Basic Design Specifications' was carried out, on the possibilities and effects of context sensitive design. The study proved that context sensitive motorway design can be cost-effective at a lower investment.
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