In today's podcast we tackle a vital but too often overlooked area of infrastructure delivery namely commissioning – the art and science of preparing and taking assets into service ready to deliver the outcomes required from the investment.

It is indeed a vital activity for every infrastructure professional to be aware of. For every asset owner and project sponsor for that matter. And while the results of getting commissioning right are so often unnoticed, the impact of getting it wrong can be commercially, socially, environmentally and politically disastrous.

So often fantastic infrastructure projects fall at the final hurdle by either opening late, having to close immediately after opening for retrofit and repair, fail to deliver outcomes to expectation, or see costs spiral as teams rally and race to meet the commercial promises of opening dates.

In the UK we might think about delays to the opening of the Jubilee Line Extension and Crossrail projects, West Coast Mainline, baggage handling problems on Heathrow Terminal Five, signalling and train power issues on the Channel Tunnel Rail link - the list goes on.

Usually the problem simply comes down to a lack of thought, time, investment and prioritisation for the commissioning process – those vital steps that make the assets ready for operation.

It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, according to the Industrial Commissioning Association, a relatively new organisation devoted to improving the quality and performance of commissioning across infrastructure, industrial and process sectors, the more people working on projects understand the importance of commissioning and the value it provides, the more successful projects will be in meeting cost, schedule, and quality objectives.

So let’s here more about this very attractive proposition and find out about the opportunities and what’s holding us back by welcoming Paul Turner, chief executive of the Industrial Commissioning Association who is driving the new organisation forward after a career spent wrestling with commissioning around the world.

Resources
Industrial Commissioning Association website
Project Commissioning - Start With the End in Mind report
Global Commissioning Standard
How Big Things Get Done

In today's podcast we reflect on last year’s HS2 north project cancellation and, one year one, explore what lessons might be learnt for future major project delivery as we move into the Starmer government era.

Now, I have been writing about infrastructure projects for 30 years and it seems that when you look back, one consistent theme constantly crops up – the delivery of major infrastructure projects is troublesome to say the least. As an industry we continuously over-promise when it comes to budgets and programme and under-deliver when it comes to social, economic and environmental outcomes.

I’m thinking Jubilee Line Extension, Heathrow T5, Channel Rail Link, Crossrail – all fantastic assets today, but the delivery process has left the industry’s reputation in the eyes of the public and politicians in tatters.

In fact, according to book “How Big Things Get Done” by Flyvbjerg and Gadner, 99.5% of major projects worldwide are over budget, over time and fail to deliver their expected benefits.

So when then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced to the Conservative Party Conference in October 2023 that phase 2 of the HS2 project beyond the West Midlands would be cancelled and replaced with “Network North”, a £36bn hastily thrown together hotch potch of transport projects, it was hardly a surprise.

HS2, said Sunak. “is a project whose costs have more than doubled, which has been repeatedly delayed and it is not scheduled to reach Manchester for almost two decades… … and for which the economic case has massively weakened with the changes to business travel post Covid.”

Much disappointment and derision followed. HS2 will now run only from London to Birmingham, with the Oak Common to Euston link on hold until a private sector backed solution can be found. The industry’s reputation for delivery sent once again into the bin.

I say again because this is not the first example of politically driven descoping as politicians run out of patience waiting for a ribbon to cut. Think the Channel Tunnel in the 1970s, the Crossrail project in the late 1980s, the Advanced Passenger Train in the 1990s, numerous tram projects in the noughties. Of course many of these projects eventually restarted and reaped benefits beyond expectation..

The question is why do they seem to have such troubled births? It warrants deeper discussion. It is therefore my pleasure to welcome Kay Hughes, former HS2 design director and Andy Murray, executive director at the Major Projects Association who have just jointly authored a new report looking specifically at what the major projects sector can learn from this recent HS2 cancellation experience.

Resources
-MPA report: "Cancellation of major projects: Perspectives on rethinking the approach to major projects inspired from HS2 Phase 2 lessons"
-MPA Prestige Lecture 2024: The Politics of Projects: Professor Ben Ansell
-HS2 North Cancellation announcement
-Network North
-How Big Things Get Done

In today's podcast we talk about housing – specifically what needs to happen to ensure that the construction sector is set to meet the new government’s ambitious target of building 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.

There is no question that when we look back at the past performance of housebuilding in the UK, we have some way to go to meet this 300,000+ new homes a year target.

The reality is that new house building numbers have rarely nudged over 200,000 a year in the last 40 years. That was, of course the point in time that local authority housing investment really dried up, handing the task largely over to the private sector and market forces.

There are signs that the new government wants this to change. The recent announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner on planning and housing targets underlined a clear ambition to challenge and support local authorities.

But as many have already pointed out, there is no silver bullet to solving the housing crisis. When it comes to delivering on these housing targets, the nation and the construction industry still faces a rake of challenges beyond removing the planning obstacles that the government has initially – and probably rightly targeted.

With this week seeing publication of the long awaited Moore-Bick report into the 2017 Grenfell fire, which will be another sobering moment for construction.

It will, I am sure, reinforce the need to transform the sector away from low cost, low quality model highlighted by Dame Judith Hackett’s 2018 report into building standards that followed the fire.

Of course, we have been talking about these challenges for literally decades – not least the need to find and retain the right skills. But we now have a new government and a new imperative to finally turn the dial and transform the sector into a shape capable of meeting the ambitious but never-the-less vital targets set by Labour.

So let’s hear more. My guest today is Mark Farmer founder and chief executive of Cast Consultancy and a font of knowledge when it comes to accelerating constructions performance and specifically the challenges of kickstarting the nations lack-luster housebuilding performance.

Resources
Cast Consultancy
The Farmer Review - Modernise of Die
Independent Review of Building Safety - Dame Judith Hackett 2018
Government announces planning overhaul - 2024
Labour manifesto
Kings Speech background briefing

In today's podcast we once again build on Labour’s first King’s Speech and dig into the UK’s ambitions for an energy transition.

The government has placed energy security and the rapid move away from fossil fuels high on its agenda for this parliament underlining its pre-election manifesto pledges to do just that.

This set out the route towards energy independence, stretching towards a clean energy future by 2030 with Great British Energy, its newly launched publicly-owned energy company driving investment into onshore wind, solar power and offshore wind power.

It’s certainly an ambitious plan. Some might say over ambitious. However, it is an ambition that will require the entire infrastructure sector to buy into as we move the dial towards a new era away from the dependence on imported energy.

Offshore wind sits at the heart of delivering this ambition as the most expensive but arguably least community disruptive source. Current plans set out by the last government aimed for an additional 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the UK by 2030 – a tripling of the current 28GW installed.

Big numbers indeed. Which makes the UK’s port network critical to accessing this huge resource, providing the shipping capacity, the skills and expertise and of course the infrastructure required to bring the power back to the land.

It’s a huge challenge and a huge opportunity for the port sector, which, by the way, is also simultaneously at the heart of the UK’s efforts to drive growth and smooth the flow of post-Brexit trade and exports into mainland Europe.

Investing to improve this infrastructure is clearly going to be critical. So let’s hear more. My guest today is Francis Paonessa, Capital Projects and Engineering Director at Associated British Ports. With 21 ports under its management across England, Scotland and Wales, ABP is the UK’s largest port operator and as such is deeply involved in smoothing the flow of UK freight but also in providing the infrastructure and expertise that will become the backbone for the UK’s plans for energy transition.

Resources
Associated British Ports website
King's Speech
What are Freeports?
Great British Energy
Offshore wind strategy

In today's podcast we discuss the way artificial intelligence is set to transform infrastructure performance.

In the short time since generative AI tools such ChatGPT and array of AI driven apps have emerged and become mainstream, our daily interactions with data has changed dramatically.
There should therefore, be absolutely no doubt in anyone’s minds that AI has the power to truly transform the way we live, work and play.

Notwithstanding the clear – and potentially well founded – fears around the unintended consequences of accelerating the use of AI technology, few can rule out the potential for change that is around the corner.

So what does the technology hold for infrastructure design construction and management sector? A sector which, after all has been synonymous with slow digital uptake and poor productivity and performance for decades?

Well it is clear that the use of digitisation and data across the planning, design, delivery and deployment of major infrastructure programmes is already becoming key to improving outcomes as we move beyond the use of Building Information Modelling towards greater use and exploitation of data and digital systems across the sector.

My guest today truly understands this potential. Rene Morkos, is chief executive of ALICE Technologies – which has developed the World’s first Generative Construction Simulator - we’ll come back to that!

He’s also a professor at Stanford University where he gained a PhD in amongst other things applied Artificial Intelligence techniques and is a true champion for technological change across the entire infrastructure delivery process.

Resources
ALICE Technologies website
About ALICE
Industrial Strategy: Construction Sector Deal
UK government BIM mandate 2016
Building magazine profile of Rene

We're back from a short summer week off and with today's podcast we are going to talk about how the engineering sector can support the new Labour government’s ambition to roll out infrastructure investment at pace and drive growth back into the UK economy.

There can be no doubt about the new government’s infrastructure ambitions following the recent King’s Speech which unequivocally placed investment in the nation’s energy, transport, water and communication infrastructure at the heart of economic growth

But how will this ambition be translated into reality? How will the industry need to change to ensure that we maximise the outcomes from every hard-earned pound of public and private cash? Cash that is far from abundant.

Without question the industry has to change and in particular the traditional role of design focused businesses must evolve to meet the new demands of infrastructure clients – and of the businesses and public that they serve – to focus on boosting the outcomes that they deliver.

To help me with this challenge, my guest today is Alex Gilbert, managing director of Amey Consulting, the design and problem solving wing of infrastructure service provider Amey, which, now freed from the shackles of its long term own Ferrovial, is now reshaping its strategy and its culture under new private equity ownership.

Alex has his hands full as he attempts to leverage the firm’s traditional engineering and design skills and add in a raft of new talents, ideas and technologies to help generate not just greater efficiency from their infrastructure investment, but meet this new challenge of fundamentally shifting the quality and value of the outcomes that this investment achieves.

All of which is, of course, crucial to delivering the ambitions demanded by his public and private sector clients but also to meeting the growth and value uplift demanded by the team at Buckthorn Partners, Amey’s new private equity owners.

Let’s find out more.

Resources
The Kings Speech 2024
Amey website
Buckthorn Partners website
Amey apprenticeships

In today's podcast we build on last week’s Kings Speech and dig into the new government’s ambitions to reform the much-criticised water sector and drive investment into this vital part of the UK’s infrastructure.

And it’s just a week or so after the delayed release of Ofwat’s long-awaited draft determination setting out how much water companies will be allowed to charge customers over the next five years. And it looks like an interesting and challenging time for everyone working in the sector.

As my guest last week Alasdair Reisner, chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association explained, for all the political, financial and environmental pressures piling up on the sector, there is no question that water is set to be one of the big growth markets over the next decade or so, as water companies battle to guarantee supplies, manage flooding, protect against drought and reduce the number of pollution incidents.

So how will this all map out for the supply chain? Where are the real opportunities? Well let’s ask someone with their finger on the pulse of the water industry.

My guest today is Tom Williams, non-executive director of British Water, the body representing the water sector supply chain and ceo of water technology and innovation consultancy Enebio.

Resources
Ofwat's draft determination July 2024
British Water response of Ofwat's draft determination
Water UK response of Ofwat's draft determination
The King's Speech
National Water Safety Forum guide to open water swimming

In the podcast today we spend a few moments digging behind the headlines from last week’s Kings Speech and try to understand what the implications of the new government’s ambitious first legislative programme will mean for the civil engineering and infrastructure sector.

In my Kings Speech preview last week I perhaps adopted a somewhat optimistic tone regarding the potential prospect of a rake of new infrastructure investment flowing rapidly from this new government.

Well listening to King Charles as he addressed parliament, I reckon that this optimism was justified! “My Ministers will get Britain building,” he said. “Including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing. They will also pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies.”

I reckon that of the 39 bills introduced in this parliamentary session at least a dozen will have a direct impact on the infrastructure sector, But of course talk is just talk; promises to enact legislation do not necessarily translate into immediate boom time for the industry supply chain. So in reality what does all this promise of change actually mean in terms of boosting activity in the critical UK construction sector?

Well who better to do that analysis for us than Alasdair Reisner, chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association and the man very much with his finger on the pulse of the sector.

Resources
The King's Speech 2024
Civil Engineering Contractors Association King's Speech response
Construction Leadership Council ‘Building A Safer, Healthier and More Sustainable Future for All’