Deep Dive with Emma Docherty
Our Deep Dive series features our technical experts who give you an inside look at how we are solving complex infrastructure challenges for our clients from across the world. This week, we are focusing on Emma Docherty and how her work on major highway projects and infrastructure programs is helping deliver resilient, high-performing transportation infrastructure across Ontario.
As an associate vice president and key member of AECOM Canada’s Impact Assessment and Permitting team, Emma leads environmental planning, permitting and engagement on complex transportation programs across Ontario. With over 20 years of experience, she integrates environmental requirements into program strategy from planning to procurement, through design, delivery and closeout to protect compliance and schedule, and maintain stakeholder confidence.
Tell us about a project that has impacted or been a major highlight of your career. How is it delivering a better world?
Building excellence into highway programs
For me, highway projects typically involve aggressive schedules, evolving designs, alternative delivery models and layered regulatory requirements — all in highly visible public environments. A defining project in my career is the Highway 427 Expansion and Extension into Vaughan, Ontario where AECOM was Owner’s Engineer for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. This was a Design-Build-Finance program requiring strict compliance with thousands of environmental and contractual obligations while advancing delivery to meet regional growth demands. On this project, I worked closely with the owner and the contractor to align environmental performance with constructability and schedule certainty.
Initially involved in the preliminary design phase, our team worked proactively to secure regulatory approvals under the Species at Risk Act (SAR) and the Fisheries Act. During the field investigations, four bat species were identified. Within the same timeframe, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) developed new protocols for these bat species and their habitats, deeming them at risk and requiring the project to undergo full permitting. This project was the first to fall under this new permitting structure, putting it under additional levels of scrutiny and review throughout the permitting process.
To maintain the project’s schedule, we obtained authorizations before developing the detail design. By leveraging our understanding of the permitting process and our strong relationships with key stakeholders and regulatory agencies, we facilitated advanced authorizations. Through consistent and effective consultation with MNRF, we used the reference concept design to identify risks and confirm the monitoring, mitigation and reporting requirements.
This was a Design-Build-Finance program requiring strict compliance with thousands of environmental and contractual obligations while advancing delivery to meet regional growth demands.
What was a key challenge you/your team faced while working on this project? How did you solve it?
Turning environmental risk into delivery confidence
With the design phase complete, I later rejoined the 427 program mid-construction and was quickly immersed in a complex regulatory framework where I supported the team in navigating environmental risk and oversaw compliance across planning, design development, delivery and closeout.
My focus was more than just compliance, it was ensuring environmental considerations actively supported program strategy, schedule certainty and decision-making. A persistent challenge on large highway programs is preventing environmental requirements from becoming barriers to progress. On Highway 427, I worked with the client and project leadership to translate environmental and permitting obligations into practical contractor actions that reflected evolving design and schedule pressures. Just as we did in the design phase, by explicitly connecting environmental risk to schedule and cost, we made informed decisions at pivotal moments, allowing the team to maintain compliance while sustaining delivery momentum.
Success depended on early risk identification and close coordination across program strategy, planning, design and delivery. Consistent engagement with regulatory agencies, Indigenous communities and stakeholders was also critical. Rather than treating environment as a standalone team, we were embedded in the program’s decision framework, supporting contractor and owner teams with real-time, risk-informed advice to balance constructability, compliance and accountability.
One of the key challenges for the 427 program revolved around its elements — the widening, the extension and municipal infrastructure adjustments such as local road realignments. To support SAR compliance, AECOM oversaw the development and execution of practical planting schedules for habitat compensation to align construction timelines with species-specific requirements. We also simplified fragmented reporting by bringing multiple data sources into a single consolidated process. Throughout construction, our team completed frequent visual inspections, providing real-time guidance so the project could adjust quickly, and successfully establish replacement of sensitive habitats to remain compliant with permitting requirements.
Delivering better outcomes on complex highway infrastructure
New highways and highway extensions are essential to regional mobility, safety and economic growth. For me, delivering better highways means building responsibly by protecting environmental features, maintaining public trust, respecting community interests and conducting truly meaningful Indigenous engagement while meeting pressing transportation needs.
Across Highway 427 and other major local highway programs I’ve worked on, including the Bradford Bypass and the Highway 413 corridors, I’ve helped clients navigate complex and evolving regulatory landscapes while advancing infrastructure that is compliant, constructible and resilient. By integrating environmental considerations into strategy from the outset, we are positioning programs to succeed amid changing legislation, heightened scrutiny and accelerated timelines.
Success depended on early risk identification and close coordination across program strategy, planning, design and delivery. Rather than treating environment as a standalone team, we were embedded in the program’s decision framework, supporting contractor and owner teams with real-time, risk-informed advice to balance constructability, compliance and accountability.
How has this experience shaped your approach to future work and expanded your career at AECOM?
The Highway 427 Expansion and Extension fundamentally shaped how I approach future work by reinforcing the value of integrating environmental, social and constructability considerations into program strategy and planning at the outset, rather than adding later. It sharpened my ability to embed environmental requirements into decision frameworks, connect risks to schedule and cost, and cultivate a relationship-based project delivery approach across agencies, stakeholders, Indigenous partners and contractors.
This project also further established my role as a trusted advisor on large-scale, alternative delivery transportation programs and as a leader and mentor for teams navigating complicated, multi-party approval processes. As transportation programs become larger and more complex, with stringent delivery schedules and intense public scrutiny, it’s important for me to consistently share and apply these lessons as best practice across my work on critical highway and transit programs.
The Highway 427 Expansion and Extension sharpened my ability to embed environmental requirements into decision frameworks, connect risks to schedule and cost, and cultivate a relationship-based project delivery approach across agencies, stakeholders, Indigenous partners and contractors.