Rising to the infrastructure opportunity - a call to arms.
We must move on from simply getting things right to constructing major infrastructure much more efficiently, says Andy Mitchell, chief executive of Thames Tideway Tunnels.
I know that I am not the only one who senses that we are at a very important juncture for the industry and for infrastructure investment, both societally and politically. That we are facing global shifts in climate, international competition and population/demographics appears beyond doubt.
Whether we are talking irrigation, sanitation, coastal protection, power generation, telecommunications or transport, it is hard to imagine a time when engineering has had such an important role to play in our future.
Quite simply we have a choice right now – to recognise the opportunity that we have to secure the national confidence to continue investing in infrastructure and do everything we can to work together to achieve this, or we can start try to figure out how we will explain to our successors that we inadvertently let this opportunity slip away.
In the UK we are very fortunate (and the envy of many other countries) that at present there is cross-party belief in the immediate and longer term value of investing in infrastructure.
There may be differences of opinion as to how we should marshal our infrastructure efforts, but with a renewed confidence in our ability to deliver projects such as HS1 (including St Pancras – a building that stands out as a particular turning point in public awareness and pride), The Olympics, The Shard, Crossrail, for the first time in my memory at least we are seeing earnest and credible discussion and planning around a national infrastructure plan that spans decades and hundreds of billions of pounds.
The Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) comprising many of the major infrastructure clients in the UK has worked very effectively over the past three years with Infrastructure UK (IUK), other industry bodies and academia to develop a coherent plan to improve infrastructure delivery.
As successful as recent projects have been, we do, however, have to stop looking surprised when we get things right, but instead set out our vision and real plans as to how, year on year, we will continue to deliver infrastructure at visibly ever better value for money so that today’s enthusiasm for such investment endures and is not replaced by political/societal support for investment on something else, or even worse, nothing at all.
Our challenge may well come soon as the economic situation improves and questions start to surface as to whether the economic stimulus of infrastructure investment is as vital as it is now.
So the four key ICG themes of pipeline visibility, Improving project initiation, whole life planning and cost control, and supply chain skills and performance have never been more important for the £380bn pipeline.
Quite simply we have a choice right now – to recognise the opportunity that we have to secure the national confidence to continue investing in infrastructure and do everything we can to work together to achieve this, or we can start try to figure out how we will explain to our successors that we inadvertently let this opportunity slip away.
So, is this a call to arms for the industry?
Yes it is, and as chair of the ICG I look forward to working with as many parts of the industry as possible to have what can, and needs to be, another three very productive years ahead in infrastructure delivery.