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Video: Chris Fry: Infrastructure assets – a land of missed opportunities?

Government Departments will soon respond to the Treasury’s call to release public land and property for 150,000 new houses.  But could more be done to embrace the holistic thinking seen in our best projects and apply the ideas elsewhere, asks Temple Group managing director Chris Fry. 

In a few weeks we will know how Government Departments have responded to the Treasury’s call for releasing public land and property for 150,000 new houses.  Redundant land and assets associated with our infrastructure needs of the past will no doubt be in the spotlight. 

But whether assets are being sold off or renewed and upgraded, more can be done to embrace the kind of holistic thinking we have seen in our best projects and apply the ideas elsewhere, says Temple Group managing director Chris Fry. 

One or two exemplary projects are leading the way in creating  infrastructure that delivers all that it could, but too many opportunities are being missed,” says Chris Fry, managing director of Temple Group.  

Speaking at the Tomorrow’s Rail 2015 event, Fry commended projects such as Crossrail that seek to go beyond a narrow remit to contribute more to enhancing our towns and cities.

“With railways and transport infrastructure generally, the best placed to start really is with the passenger, their experience and better use of technology. People don’t mind spending time at stations if there are the right facilities, such as Wifi and good ways into the infrastructure with places to leave their bikes,” Chris Fry.

However, he challenges other parts of the infrastructure industry to follow this lead to work collaboratively to capture the value that can be created by more sustainable solutions.

“[Projects such as Crossrail] have embraced the fact that it’s not just about creating a railway, the new or enhanced stations. It’s also about the public realm and the experience for the customer,” he said.

“On the other hand, [the UK has] 2,500 or so stations that will at some point be in need of an upgrade or have been given an uplift, but we’ve had some missed opportunities there. We’re not thinking enough about these being assets for renewable energy systems, for example,” he added. “Apart from Blackfriars in London, the majority of stations do not have solar photovoltaic panels, even though most other developments would have them as a matter of course.”

The sustainability concept should be about bringing all of these things together in a practical way: environmental and low carbon solutions, combined with a focus on the communities that the infrastructure serves, said Fry.

“With railways and transport infrastructure generally, the best placed to start really is with the passenger, their experience and better use of technology. People don’t mind spending time at stations if there are the right facilities, such as Wifi and good ways into the infrastructure with places to leave their bikes,” said Fry.

Temple’s concept of ‘Turquoise Cities’ is based on the idea of bringing aspects of the green agenda together with ‘liveability’ or people’s experiences and real resilience for the long term. “It’s important that each aspect – the green, the community, technology and customer parts – are seen as dots to join up, contributing to the bigger picture and adding value.” Fry added.

“There are good examples at sites around London and elsewhere in the country where some new transport infrastructure is giving opportunity to regenerate, to join up all these dots to work together and create some value, as well as a better place and a low carbon solution.”

If you would like to contact Antony Oliver about this, or any other story, please email antony.oliver@infrastructure-intelligence.com.