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Alastair Lenczner

Can UK infrastructure planning learn from an old beer advert?

Why don’t we see a more coordinated approach in the planning of today’s UK infrastructure projects? We could, says Alastair Lenczner of Useful Simple Projects.

The holistic approach seen in the recently published London 2050 Infrastructure Plan has prompted thinking with regards to how we should plan infrastructure at a national level. Would our nation be better served by more holistic thinking and integrated planning of our infrastructure than the “silo” thinking that currently prevails?    

Several years ago, a beer company ran TV advertising campaign which prompted viewers to imagine how some things we take for granted might be better done differently.

The TV advert featured a team of road workers in a hole dug into a busy street. (Click here to remind yourself!)

"The idea of coordinating an integrated infrastructure project within the UK is actually nothing new."

A utility worker in a passing van sees the hole and shares an idea: “While you’ve got that open we could lay our new gas main in it…..” . Another passing utilities man chips in: “You wouldn’t mind if I stick a cable in there at the same time would you?” The road works supervisor in the hole reflects on the idea and then responds: “The more merrier!.......This could save the public weeks of disruption! Anyone else?”. The ad concluded with the campaign tag-line: “How refreshing, how Heineken!”

Whilst Heineken’s ad men conceived the scenario as an amusing way to sell their beer, the advert proposes what seems a good idea: the various utility companies should co-ordinate their work to serve the public better.

The idea of coordinating an integrated infrastructure project within the UK is actually nothing new. London’s 19th century Victoria Embankment project by the Metropolitan Board of Works is an excellent example of how a public works project really can combine multiple infrastructure elements. The project combined a river wall, a major interceptor sewer, an underground railway, a public roadway, and various utility pipes within one integrated project. For good measure the project also incorporated a new public park.

“How refreshing, how Heineken!”

So why don’t we see more of this type approach in the planning of today’s UK infrastructure projects? Technically there is no overriding reason why many infrastructure projects couldn’t be integrated in some way. Appropriate integrated infrastructure planning offers the prospect of saving significant construction disruption on the public as well as saving space in an increasingly congested country. It also likely that significant construction cost savings could be achieved compared to implementing the respective infrastructure components as separate projects. 

The prevailing culture of “silo” thinking of our infrastructure planning agencies means that today’s “business-as-usual” approach is that each infrastructure sector considers projects in isolation. In most cases, however, it’s the current regulatory frameworks constraining the UK infrastructure industry that make it all but impossible to promote combining separate infrastructure/utility projects into integrated construction project. It’s civil servant “red tape” rather than real technical obstacles that prevents the idea of integrating our infrastructure.   

"If real technical and cost benefits could be identified for integrating infrastructure projects (including reduced disruption) then the government should act"

Options for combining separate infrastructure projects into integrated projects should be seriously studied to understand what the potential net benefits could be. For example, land corridor for the proposed HS2 line would seem to present a good opportunity to include new cables and/or pipelines alongside the railway to meet national infrastructure needs.

If real technical and cost benefits could be identified for integrating infrastructure projects (including reduced disruption) then the government should act to ensure that regulatory restrictions don’t prevent such good project ideas from being realized. 

A government that acts to reduce red-tape restrictions on infrastructure planning? Now, that would be refreshing!

Alistair Lenczner is a director for Infrastructure + Planning + Design at Useful Simple Projects