Sounds Like Infrastructure by Ferrovial

Have you ever wondered what life would be like without electricity? Most of us don’t give it much thought—until the lights go out. In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri swept across Texas, plunging millions into darkness. Roads froze, power lines snapped, and hospitals were overwhelmed. Texans faced days of uncertainty in freezing temperatures, underscoring the fragility of our energy systems. This e...

Let's travel back in time, about 100 years, to the state of Texas. Today, five of the most populated cities in the United States are here, but in the early 20th century, it was a small rural community connected by dirt paths. The arrival of industrialization completely transformed the area, especially two communities, the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Transportation advancements contributed to its...

Have you ever dreamt of flying? This dream is quite common. Humans have always been fascinated by the skies, and our quest to conquer them dates back to the Spain of Al-Ándalus. Amazing, isn’t it?   In the 9th century, the Andalusian scientist Abbás Ibn Firnás decided he wanted to fly. After a few crashes, he created a prototype that was able to glide for a few seconds. Interestingly, th...

London is one of the main metropolitan areas of the world. If you think about the English capital, you can probably name ten iconic things off the top of your head. Shakespeare, Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace, Sherlock Holmes. A city that's buzzing with music and theater, in constant movement. The London metro system, or the "tube" as Londoners call it, is a symbol of the city's vitality. It's not...

How can we evolve as a society without sidelining the environment? The past few decades have brought about new needs in a rapidly evolving landscape, bringing up new questions. The challenge is to find ways to adapt to the local habitats we’re building in, from the tallest trees to the smallest animals. But, how can we protect some of the most fragile species in our projects? This dilemma is...

During the hurricane season in the Atlantic, a period that runs from June 1 to November 30 each year, the tropical cyclones that head towards the US and Caribbean coasts test the management and strength of all constructions and infrastructures. Meteorologist Albert Martinez explains how to predict the path of a hurricane and the deadlines citizens have to prepare for potential hazards.  Edgar...

We have always been struck by the incredible height of skyscrapers. Do you know how tall the tallest building in the world is? The current record is 2,717 feet, over half a mile. Nonetheless, we are sure that somewhere in the world, an even taller one is already being planned. Have you ever wondered how tall they are downwards? How many feet would they have had to build underground, to support suc...

In 1765 the Scotsman James Watt invented the steam engine. In 4500 BC, humans from way back then invented the wheel.   More than six thousand years of difference between one invention and the other, but both completely transformed society at the time and all that was to come.   On a smaller scale, construction, engineering and architecture evolve thanks to the accumulation of experience...

Imagine the highways of the future with faster drive times, fewer accidents and reliable, instant safety alerts that are navigated by a mixture of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). As vehicles are getting smarter, so as the roads in which they circulate in thanks to emergence of new technologies like 5G, C-V2X and real-time sensing which are being retrofitted into the existing in...

On a warm August night in 1790, Madrid’s Plaza Mayor was home to one of the worst fires the city had ever seen. Over the course of nine days, the fire not only burned most of the square, but also wreaked havoc outside of it too.  After the fire was finally put out, the king commissioned the architect Juan de Villanueva to rebuild the square. His task? To make sure it never burned down again.&...

This World Water Day, we take a look at what cities across the world are doing to diversify their water supplies and make sure they don’t face their very own ‘Day Zero’ - the apocalyptical sounding event that threatened Cape Town in early 2018.  Peter Bailey guides us through Houston’s plan to diversify from groundwater and stop the city from sinking, and Eva Muñoz Manzanera explains how the...

Diversity and inclusion are terms we’ve been hearing a lot more of recently. But although their definitions are pretty straightforward, we don’t always know exactly what they mean when it comes to their use in the world of business.  To help celebrate International Women’s Day, we’ve decided to dig a little deeper into what these two words mean. We talk to Webber’s Chelsea Russo about her exp...

On this episode of Sounds Like Infrastructure we get to grips with Formula 1 surfaces. We get to the root of the problem of what made the asphalt feel like ice at the Turkish Grand Prix in 2020, ask what caused a disastrous resurfacing of Silverstone in 2018, and find out what it takes to formulate the perfect asphalt for the perfect circuit.  Thanks to our F1 experts Damien Smith and Chris M...

The part of the story about Hoover Dam that most people don’t know is that the dam itself nearly didn’t happen at all.  On this episode of Sounds Like Infrastructure, we talk to the author and LA Times journalist Michael Hiltzik, who’s book ‘ Colossus ’ details the history of the dam.  We find out how Herbert Hoover finally convinced the seven states to come to an agreement, learn about...

The bridge that we see today is not the bridge that chief engineer Joseph Strauss had in mind when he first pitched his idea for the Golden Gate. His 1921 design was big and clunky. Like one of those old metal railway bridges you see in the movies. Not something that would fit in with the surroundings of the San Francisco Bay.  But Strauss had designed his bridge (a mix of a cantilever and su...

Of all of the buzzwords to come out of the tech world over the last 20 years, there’s one in particular that’s really stuck around. IOT: The Internet of Things.  Although you’ve probably heard of it, it’s a technology that never really got the red carpet treatment. And yet these days, it seems to be everywhere you look.  Now, Ferrovial is working on a new project to turn its highways int...

The Caixaforum Madrid is a building that makes you stop for one reason: it looks like it’s floating. Even after staring at it for a couple of minutes, it’s difficult to figure out. There are so many design decisions that just don’t seem to make sense. And that’s exactly what makes it beautiful. On this episode of Sounds Like Infrastructure, we see how Ferrovial took the iconic Herzog and De Meuron...

What is it like to build in one of the most seismically active countries in the world? How do you design an earthquake resistant building?  On this episode of Sounds Like Infrastructure, we dig into the rules that govern construction in Chile and find out the techniques that engineers and companies like Ferrovial are using to combat the huge forces produced by an earthquake.  Sounds like...

In 2013, a whitepaper that aimed to revolutionise transport appeared on the internet. The paper had been published by Elon Musk, who had sat down with some SpaceX and Tesla engineers to flesh out the idea for what they called Hyperloop. People thought the whitepaper would come with the news that Musk was launching a new company. But surprisingly, it didn’t. Instead, he made the idea and research o...

Here is a question that you’ve probably asked yourself: is it possible to have a road where there is little to no congestion? A road where cars don’t get stuck in traffic? In 2008, Ferrovial and Cintra asked themselves that same question as they were about to build a new stretch of highway in Dallas that would aim to solve this problem. The answer? To dynamically price the road. In this episode, w...

In this episode we take a look at two stories related to explosives and infrastructure. One for destruction, the other for construction.  At the beginning of the second World War, the Swiss found themselves surrounded by fighting in Europe. Although they had been officially neutral for more than 100 years, the military weren’t convinced the Germans wouldn’t invade. To help deter an invasion,...

Michael Granoff, Founder and Managing Partner of Maniv Mobility, on MaaS | Episode 3 | The Chat Lab If you are a mobility enthusiast, you'll enjoy #TheChatLab, a YouTube program in which our colleagues interview other experts in the sector. You can also listen to it as a podcast. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8l-qQaea7cjtdSUU2D_Ba8UVpQFiW99e Do you want to learn all about the current tre...

Nir Erez, CEO of Moovit, about Intel’s acquisition and urban mobility | Episode 2 | The Chat Lab If you are a mobility enthusiast, you'll enjoy #TheChatLab, a YouTube program in which our colleagues interview other experts in the sector. You can also listen to it as a podcast. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8l-qQaea7cjtdSUU2D_Ba8UVpQFiW99e We are launching the second episode of #TheChatLa...

Yasmine Fage, Autonomous Vehicles and post-COVID Mobility | Episode 1 | The Chat Lab If you are a mobility enthusiast, you'll enjoy #TheChatLab, a YouTube program in which our colleagues interview other experts in the sector. You can also listen to it as a podcast. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8l-qQaea7cjtdSUU2D_Ba8UVpQFiW99e Our expert in mobility and CEO of Wondo, Ion Cuervas-Mons, ta...

Between 1799 and 1843 there were three attempts to tunnel under London’s river Thames. But only one was successful, and it would use an invention so simple yet genius that even today’s tunnels are built using an adaptation of it. The idea? Mark Brunel’s tunneling shield.   We take a look at how the first underground tunnels were built, the questionable health and safety involve...