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Gordon Masterton

Turning hindsight into insight

The starting point in every new project should be a comprehensive assessment and understanding of past decisions and choices, says Gordon Masterton

I often hear the message that it’s time the civil engineering industry broke free from the shackles of its history.

“The country still runs on Victorian infrastructure and we place too much reliance on our past glories and Victorian engineer-heroes like Brunel” (a somewhat overrated icon who has obscured better engineers with his shadow – a personal view!). 

“The Victorians might recognise many elements of our infrastructure. The rest would look like science fiction.”

The Victorians did indeed build a lot of infrastructure - and they inherited a network of canals and emerging roads. But their railways were not electrified. Their water supply and sewerage systems were not computer controlled. 

Their streets were lit by gas. Their machines were fuelled by coal. They had no networked electricity generation. And powered flight was a pipe dream.The Victorians might recognise many elements of our infrastructure. The rest would look like science fiction. 

Just as we continuously adapt and evolve our infrastructure until it’s fit for today’s standards, so did our 20th century predecessors. Railway electrification, telemetry, automatic lighthouses, motorways, hydroelectricity, nuclear power, space exploration. 

They’re all 20th century developments. It was a highly productive century of engineering. We did not just sit on our Victorian laurels. Engineering is a continuum.

But the point is that to evolve and adapt effectively, we need to understand what we already have, why it was done that way, what materials were used, what cultural ties are bound into it. We need to understand the past so that we can better design the future. 

My pitch applies to many areas of #mydayengineering (yes, there’s a hashtag). Not least to safety. The fundamental aim of the Structural-Safety body is to learn from the past. The excellent database in CROSS is essential reading before embarking on any new structural design. But the principle applies to all aspects of appropriate and sympathetic design.

Every engineer should have a grounding in Heritage 101 and the starting point in every new project should be a comprehensive assessment and understanding of past decisions and choices. 

It’s not a dry and dusty topic. It’s an essential launchpad. It’s about turning hindsight into insight.

Gordon Masterton is chairman of SCOSS and the ICE Panel for Historical Engineering Works and a past presdent of the ICE.