The Infrastructure Podcast

This podcast focuses on the importance of understanding risk as a vital step towards being able to effectively manage projects while also protecting your business and its reputation. Anyone working in infrastructure is familiar with the need to identify, quantify and manage risk, be that around performance, safety, programme or perhaps budget. And they will be wel aware that good risk management enables better decision making – and that better decisions almost certainly return better outcomes.But to what extent do modern professionals really fully understand the risks that they are assessing – and really fully understand the consequences for their project or their business of getting that assessment right - or wrong?Infrastructure is a complex business. And the world we are in is an increasingly complex place right now. It is therefore vital for modern leaders to really understand the risks that surround them - and to be aware of the potential reputational consequences of the decisions that they make. Get it right and business thrives; get it wrong and crisis is usually just around the corner.So to help us to understand more about this vital issue, it is my pleasure to welcome George Hutchinson, chief executive and founder of reputation risk and crisis management consultancy River Effra. George spends his time helping a range of clients across multiple industry sectors to really understand the threats they face and the steps that they can take to protect their reputations. ResourcesRiver Effra websiteUnder Pressure report

This podcast focuses on the challenge of building, maintaining and upgrading the UK’s vital mobile telecommunications network. It is a bizarre reality that we are now used to having highspeed internet connectivity beaming into our devices at all times. To the extent that any loss of connectivity ranges from being hugely annoying to business critical.The good news is that, having identified the need to provide universal coverage as a key priority in its 2018 Needs Assessment, the National Infrastructure Commission now describes this sector as one its success stories int terms of positive investment activity five years later. According to its latest progress update, the UK’s 4G coverage now extends to around 92% of the landmass. The Shared Rural Network agreement should increase this to 95% by the end of 2025, and it adds, “further coverage improvements in the harder to reach areas continuing until the start of 2027”.Great progress indeed. Not least given that 5G networks are also being extended across the UK, and coverage now stands at around 70%. As the government puts it in their recently published Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, “the ambition for the majority of the population to have access to a 5G signal by 2027, has been achieved five years early.”So we are not out of the 5G connectivity dark woods quite yet. According it its research the NIC reports that “challenges remain on upgrading mobile coverage on the rail network and securing investment for deploying new 5G networks”.As the Government’s Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, explains, the long term commercial and strategic value of 5G is yet to be fully understood. In short, the commercial viability of full 5G coverage beyond cities and urban centres will be determined by whether it becomes more than just a faster version of 4G, and whether it provides solutions to pressing problems – enabling 5G to deliver the promised productivity benefits of £159 billion by 2035.So what is going on. Is 5G and a high speed mobile future likely to be universal across the UK limited to those in cities who are able and willing to pay. Well to find out, it is my pleasure to welcome Belinda Fawcett, Director of Property & Estates and General Counsel at Cornerstone, one of the businesses now wrestling with the challenge of rolling out the UK’s communications networks and simultaneous making the commercial case for investment. ResourcesCornerstone Networks websiteWireless Infrastructure StrategyThe Shared Rural Network agreementNIC 2018 Needs AssessmentNIC 2023 Progress reportDigital Economy Act 2017

This podcast sets out to bust the myths and expose the realities around our hydrogen future –  explaining how this fuel can really fit in the UK’s net zero carbon energy future and understanding the infrastructure challenges of making the ambition a reality. There is no dispute that when it comes to energy sources, hydrogen is one of the cleanest around. No carbon emissions are released when it’s burned as a domestic of industrial replacement for fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. And when used in at fuel cell to power vehicles, it is reckoned that the fuel cell is around two to three times more efficient than a conventional internal combustion engine.So given that in 2019 the UK emitted 351.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the use of fossil fuels, representing over 80% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, it is clear that harnessing the power of a clean fuel such as hydrogen must be part of our net zero carbon future.If the UK is to meet its legally binding targets to be a net-zero emitter by 2050, we have to radically rethink the way we heat our homes, run our vehicles and power our industry. Hydrogen is part of this radical rethink, alongside the switch to renewable electricity generation and the drive towards using less by insulating homes and redesigning industrial processes. In addition, hydrogen has huge potential as an efficient and cost effective means to store and transport energy – particularly useful when smoothing the power output from intermittent renewable generation. The challenge – and the reason so often quoted as to why hydrogen can never be a serious part of the UK’s energy mix – is how to create the vast qualities of hydrogen required to replace the current global fossil fuel demand. Problems of cost and complexity continue to make the gas difficult to produce commercially.So what is the truth about hydrogen. It is the solution to our energy transition needs or simply a technical dead-end. Well to find out, it is my pleasure to welcome Dr Angie Needle, Director of Strategy at Cadent Gas and Vice President of Hydrogen UK who is without question one of the UK’s leading hydrogen and net-zero energy minds and so well capable of exploding the myths around the UK’s hydrogen future.Resources Cadent future of gas website Hydrogen Village - WhitbyHyNet projectNational Infrastructure Commission Progress Update 2023Energy Networks Association Gas Goes Green videoWomens Utilities Network

This podcast focuses on what can be done to help major infrastructure project teams actually deliver the outcomes that are promised – and specifically whether engaging minds early will drive project success .As any casual observer of infrastructure will be aware, the track record of major project delivery is not good. In fact a new book by Oxford University professor Bent Flyvbjerg highlights that globally from his list of 16,000 projects in 136 countries over the last 30 years, just 8.5% met cost and schedule targets while just 0.5% satisfied all benefit goals.OK, I haven’t audited his numbers, but they are, on the face of it, a pretty shocking set of findings – findings that seem to bear out and ring true if you consider the UK’s recent project outcomes from projects such as Crossrail, Jubilee Line Extension, West Coast Mainline upgrade, Hinkley Point – the list goes on. And there are of course many more examples of smaller infrastructure projects failing to deliver. So what is going wrong? Prof Flyvbjerg highlights many, many reasons from long durations causing scope and budget creep to failure to understand technology and a propensity towards ‘optimism bias’ urging professionals down the wrong paths.But primarily his conclusion – and one shared by many others in the industry given the number of industry papers and report on the subject – is poor project initiation or failure in the commissioning stage as the wrong people are left to make the wrong decisions at the wrong moment.So is that true? And if so how do we change it?Well to find out, it is my pleasure to welcome Simon Kirby, managing partner at well-known and respected trouble shooting, project delivery consultancy The Nichols Group to the Infrastructure Podcast. Simon has a several decades of experience wrestling with the challenge of delivering major projects and programmes.ResourcesThe Nichols GroupProf. Bent FlyvbjergMajor Project Association 

In this latest podcast we talk about the challenge of building and training the skilled workforce fit for a modern railway.In the five years to March 2024, some £50.6bn will have been invested to run, maintain and enhance the UK national rail network. The current expectation is that some £44bn will be committed for the next CP7 period to March 2029, made up from £27.5bn from government funding and the rest from commercial income. These are, in anyone’s book, vast sums of money. And if you add into this the commitment to funding other rail projects such as HS2, East West Rail, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Transport for London’s on-going expenditure, it clear that the UK’s rail infrastructure takes a lot of looking after.That requires a skilled and experienced workforce, not only to keep the system running effectively, efficiently and safely, but also to continually embrace new ways to managing the assets so as to do more with the available funding – and do it more safely.And it will require new technologies, new techniques and much learning from other industries. To do this means training a new generation of rail worker and upskilling the existing cohort. It means attracting and training a raft of new apprentices and graduate trainees to lead the industry towards a new digitally enhanced, customer focused railway industry, capable of placing the UK rail network at the heart of an integrated modern transport system.To discuss how this will happen it is my pleasure therefore to welcome Neil Robertson, chief executive, National Skills Academy for Rail to the Infrastructure Podcast, unquestionably the man with the passion and experience to meet this challenge.Resources National Skills Academy for RailRoutes into Rail websiteTIES Living Lab

In this podcast we try to understand a bit more about the challenge of fixing transport in the North - and how Sub-National Transport Bodies like Transport for the North can help to drive the vital investment required.And yes - I renamed this podcast because feedback suggested the original title "Understanding the role of Sub-National Transport Bodies" was just a little too obscure and not "grabbing" enough! So we start by asking what exactly are Sub-National Transport Bodies (STBs) – what are they, what do they do and why do we need them.STBs  were created by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act in 2016, and there are now seven Sub National Transport Bodies covering different regions of the UK. The intension is to provide strategic transport policy leadership at a larger scale than is possible by the existing local transport authorities or local authorities individually.Of the seven currently in existence, only one - Transport for the North - has been given statutory powers – and as such, from 2018 TfN has been a statutory partner to the Department for Transport, National Highways, and Network Rail to ensure that the North's pan-Northern strategic transport priorities are developed and delivered. The rest, bodies such as Transport for the South East, Transport for the East, England’s Economic Heartland, Western Gateway and Peninsular Transport and Midlands Connect operate in shadow form, advising and cajoling but without formal powers to act.That said, they do hold influence and, by bringing together local authorities, businesses, communities and asset owners, they should able to make significant cross border difference in terms of where sone vast sums of devolved and centralised public cash is focussed. But do they in reality? Well to discuss this it is my pleasure to welcome Martin Tugwell to the Infrastructure Podcast. Martin is chief executive of Transport for the North and the former leader of England Economic Heartland so probably knows more about STBs than anyone in the UK! STB Conference - 5th JuneTransport for the North websiteTfN strategic transport plan

In this podcast  we talk about transforming UK transport by “adopting an integrated systems approach”.So what does that mean in practice? Well despite multiple local and national investment programmes over decades, the UK still seems to lack transport infrastructure that is capable of providing reliable and predictable journey times.We certainly have a multitude of available modes – cars, trains, aircraft, buses, trams, taxis, bikes etc. But we consistently seem to lack the ability to join these up to create seemly, efficient, cost effective door to door journeys. As a result the car dominates our transport – providing a personalised service for those that can afford it but at a growing social and environmental cost to us all. It is my pleasure therefore, to welcome Sue Kershaw, to the Infrastructure Podcast today to discuss the concept of a new integrated system approach to transport. Sue is managing director for transportation at contractor Costain and has spent a career working to create better transport systems. More importantly, she recently, as a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and President of the Association for Project Management, she has been championing the concept of an integrated systems approach to transport strategy.ResourcesA Systems Approach to Infrastructure Delivery Institution of Civil EngineersAssociation for Project ManagementCrossrail Learning Legacy

As the dust settles on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’ latest budget statement in March, many were perhaps slightly disappointed that it didn’t make more reference to - or provide more direct support for - investment in UK infrastructure Not least after his announcement of a raft of delays to the investment plans for a number for key projects including HS2 and the Lower Thames Crossing.OK there was commitment to new nuclear and to investment in a new era of carbon capture and storage. But fundamentally, questions have been raised over just how committed the current government is to delivering the current £600bn pipeline.  Regardless of government’s repeated reassurance that investment delays are simply technical measures required to balance ethe books, is the infrastructure sector guilty of failing to reinforce the absolute priority of maintaining investment momentum and highlighting the simple truth that the longer projects take the more they ultimately cost?In short, in this political climate, does the infrastructure sector have to step up a gear.To answer this question and discuss how we can continue to keep infrastructure at the heart of UK economic recovery it is my pleasure to welcome Marie Claude Hemming, Director of Operations at the Civil Engineering Contractors Association to the Infrastructure Podcast as someone who has spent decades making the case for investment.ResourcesCECA websiteCECA Sector groupsInfrastructure Future GroupNIC Infrastructure Progress Review 2023HM Government Spring Budget 2023IPA Transforming Infrastructure Performance – Roadmap to 2030 

In this podcast we talk about the challenge of “designing infrastructure for people” – clearly a vital outcome from investment but too often overlooked.In particular, we are going focus on the architectural challenge of the Crossrail project, a multibillion pound scheme which after decades of planning and construction has given London the new Elizabeth Line beneath the capital - in fact providing 100km service linking Heathrow Airport and Reading in the west across to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.Everyone will be familiar with the criticisms of the project and the fact that it was delivered several years late and considerably over budget when it opened in May last year.  A lot of lessons will of course be learned.But crucially, anyone that has travelled on the new Elizabeth Line will also appreciate – and in most cases eulogise about – the step change that the new service provides in terms of scale, comfort and sheer user delight from a public transport facility.In short, much of that delight is down to good design – of the trains but more importantly of the stations which are, without exception, designed with the users in mind. In fact, the new underground station beneath the heart of London have been described as modern cathedrals to public transport – expensive and complex to deliver certainly, but now key hubs and drivers for a wholesale uplift in the public realm for decades to come.Behind this success is good design and a clear architectural vision for public need. It is my pleasure therefore, to welcome Harbinder Birdi to the Infrastructure Podcast today, who, as a partner at architectural practice Hawkins Brown, was the architect that, over many years and for many masters, drove and clung onto that vision for Crossrail.ResourcesCrossrail Learning LegacyBirdi and Partners architectsDefining and developing the Design Champion role

The infrastructure profession has a massive role to play in helping the UK to tackle climate change and ensure that the nation stays on track to meeting its net zero emissions targets by 2050.Transforming the design and operation of our public and private transport system is one of the most important areas to tackle; to decarbonise existing modes but also to accelerate the development and introduction of new and evolving transport modes - enabling society to move towards new, cleaner, healthier more efficient ways to travel.This podcast discussed the challenge of decarbonising transport with Rachel Skinner, executive director for ESG & Government Relations at consultant WSP and a very well known advocate for embracing low carbon futures – something that she championed during her year as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2020/21. Rachel is also leading the new Interchange event which is being held in Birmingham on 18th and 19th April. As chair of the advisory panel,  she is helping the supply chain to accelerate towards sustainable and resilient transport solutions.Resources ICE Presidential Address 2020 PAS 2080: Carbon management in buildings and infrastructure guidanceInterchange - the hub for mobility infrastructure ICE Fellowship routes