Geografie 2021, 126, 29-53
Evaluation of Slovakia’s R1 expressway enhancement impacts on local socio-economic development: expert panel approach
, Alena Rochovská2, Marcel Horňák2
1Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
2Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Economic and Social Geography, Demography and Territorial Development, Bratislava, Slovakia
Received August 2020
Accepted January 2021
Transport infrastructure development is considered one of the basic structural preconditions of competitiveness, growth and economic development in Slovakia. Transport network upgrading in the country has recently been focused mainly on road and motorway networks. The goal of this paper is to contribute to existing approaches to transport infrastructure impact assessment. The paper presents selected results of qualitative research focused on an analysis of the R1 expressway (as a part of TEN-T network) and its impacts on the economic, social and environmental dimensions of life at the local territorial level. The paper also seeks to answer the basic question, whether and to what extent the new section of the expressway brings any stimuli to regional or local development. Qualitative research realized by field sociological methods has shown new data and information necessary for a complex assessment of transport infrastructure impacts on social and economic development of regions. We assume that these impacts should not be based purely on mathematic and statistical research methods.
Keywords
transport, R1 expressway, Slovakia, investment, direct and indirect impacts.
Funding
This paper was supported by the APVV project No. APVV-17-0141 titled “Analysis of Barriers in Access to Employment for Marginalized Groups of Population: Selected regions of Slovakia in socio-economic, geographic and socio-anthropological perspective”.
