Engineering Matters

Construction has not always recognised the value of using data from past projects to deliver better results in the present. It often finds itself starting from scratch on new projects, when learning from earlier experiences could help solve its productivity problem. But the so-called data rich design is still sporadic, and the industry suffers for it, sometimes leading to project delays, cost-over...

Something remarkable is happening in East Anglia. Waste heat from sewage treatment is being pumped into two enormous greenhouses creating low carbon heat for growing tomatoes. A lot of tomatoes, more than 10% of UK production. This use of waste heat is just one of the ways that water companies are using waste as a resource, as they follow a roadmap to ensure that operational greenhouse gas emissio...

In this episode we partnered with WSP to tell the story of Looe, a fishing port in Cornwall. The small town has the dubious accolade of ‘most flooded place in England’, and without intervention, the situation will get much worse.  With sea levels rising by as much as a metre over the next century, and the land sinking due to the retreat of the glaciers following the last glacial maximum, floo...

With the weight of the built environment exceeding that of the total biomass for the first time, the human impact on the planet has passed a symbolic but significant milestone. What we do matters, and such a society needs to be run as effectively as possible. Every year the World Economic Forum publishes its Global Risks Report. This document details the perceived greatest risks to human civilisat...

The data quality in the planning and development sector is appalling. Whether supplied in this form accidentally, negligently, or recklessly does not matter – much of it is wrong. Yet over the years, this data has been used to form some of our most important decisions for the built environment. Now a new system will make sense of this data, rationalise it so that different sectors and different bo...

A revolution is happening in the UK, and it is happening quietly. Inspired by the Copenhagen Bicycle Account, Bike Life is the biggest assessment of cycling in cities and urban areas across the UK and Ireland. Started in Birmingham, but now in 12 cities across the country, Bike Life has informed policy decisions, justified investment and enabled cities to develop more ambitious action plans for cy...

It is tree planting season in the UK. With their amazing carbon storage ability, flood alleviation capacity and biodiversity boosting potential, trees are fast becoming a critical part of plans to reduce net carbon emissions and mitigate against global warming. But with only 13 percent tree cover the UK lags behind Europe when it comes forest density, a fact the Committee on Climate Change and The...

Welcome to the very last Engineering Matters of 2020!  In this episode we go back to some of the biggest stories that we covered over the past year and find out what happened next.  We also give listeners a peak behind the curtain at how we put the episodes together and introduce you to some members of the team that you don’t usually hear from. So sit back, enjoy, and we will see you in...

With a £100bn capital spending plan, the biggest ever investment in new transport infrastructure and a ten-point plan for climate change, the UK is determined to build its way to post COVID19 economic recovery. The bad news is that major projects have a terrible track record for not being built on time and going over budget. In this episode we partner with consultant Mott MacDonald to find out how...

Contributing around 8% of global climate emissions, concrete is a major source of carbon. It is also essential, and no major project is feasible without thousands of tonnes of concrete. As the world looks to decrease its impact on the environment, with a reduction of carbon emissions forming a major focus within that effort, every sector has to play its part. In this episode we look at concrete, a...

Have you ever walked past a newly surfaced road, perhaps around the corner from your house… and wondered when it will next be resurfaced? Side roads often seem to be in poor condition, and if you live in England, you probably will not see it resurfaced again in your lifetime. The average interval is 119 years. In this episode we have partnered with Shell to learn about a new trial project that cou...

In this episode we look at how the demands of the industry are becoming increasingly diverse, resulting in a similar change in the people carrying out the work.  We look at how the industry can adapt to use new tools at its disposal to take advantage of new skills, improve productivity, and make construction a better place to work…for everyone.  This is a story not just about the industry as...

Set in the West Midlands county of Staffordshire is a former Royal Forest called Cannock Chase. It is part misty, secluded woodland and part undulating moorland. As you head up to the north of this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the landscape becomes tame and you enter the Shugborough Estate, some 10km to the east of the town of Stafford. Beneath the garden landscape, dotted by picnickers, jo...

The adoption of healthy or unhealthy behaviours at project reviews can have an enormous impact on the overall project and even the wider industry.  Going down the wrong path can have a multiplier effect over the course of the project, and with growing project complexities, you need to be able to rely on your team. In this episode a group of experts in the field examines the good and the bad o...

It is by now a topic that sadly needs little introduction. It has impacted everyone in the last year. Changed lives and livelihoods, overturned entire sectors, and altered the global balance of power Our way of living and working has changed, and only in the last couple of weeks has hope appeared in the distance, as two vaccines appear potentially viable… offering protection in up to 95% of people...

In this episode we look at the Circuit Zandvoort, the iconic post-WW2 racetrack in the Netherlands. Beloved by fans of all flavours of motorsport, it recently had cause to redesign and resurface its track in the hopes of hosting the first Dutch Grand Prix since 1985. To do this required the design of some of the steepest banked corners in the world, the construction of which pushed the supply chai...

A revolution is approaching manufacturing, one that will see costs and time to market cut by as much as 50%. The digitalisation of engineering will reduce the need to churn out prototypes as a product goes back and forth between design and manufacturing departments. In a rapidly changing world, this revolution cannot come soon enough, with major companies currently struggling to keep up with dynam...

Until a few years ago the offshore wind industry was constrained by the seabed characteristics of countries seeking to harness the generating capacity of the wind. Only those with shallow waters of around 40m or less could implement fixed offshore arrays. But in just a few years the game has changed. Floating offshore turbines are entering commercial production and opening up vast swathes of ocean...

In this episode we have partnered with Autodesk Construction Solutions to look at a new approach to housing construction in Kenya.  We take a look at how a local architecture, engineering and construction firm, BuildX, is working with modern methods of construction – manufacturing modular units offsite – to produce housing on a scale, and at a price, that will help ease the deficit and hopefu...

The Vulcan is one of the most iconic aircraft ever flown by the Royal Air Force. Although not quite the household name that the Spitfire has been, it has always been a crowd favourite at air shows.  As well as the immense noise generated by its four Rolls Royce Olympus engines, which has thrilled children up and down the country, it was incredibly agile in the air for an aircraft that is 30m...

Imagine a world where Alexa can tell you the latest, greenest, safest and most cost-effective way to design, deliver or operate something. Advice on decision-making that takes into account whole life costing, and tell you where best to spend money, to save more money in future. We all understand this concept in our own lives; spending more money on a boiler to get lower maintenance costs, for exam...

Anglian Water currently enjoys a daily surplus of 150 million litres of water, but this is forecast to become a 150 million litre deficit by 2045. To help mitigate this shortfall it is constructing hundreds of kilometres of large diameter pipeline, as well as pumping stations and storage points to divert water from areas with abundant supply to areas that are more at risk of shortages. This networ...

On a bright morning in April, people in the city of Jalandhar in the state of Punjab stood out in the streets and saw something breath-taking… something that many of them had never seen before. The skies were so clear that for the first time in decades the soaring peaks of the Himalayas standing almost 200km away to the north east were visible to the naked eye. But these were not the only people t...

Historically civilisations have sprung up wherever the land was most fertile, soils that supported good crop productivity to meet the food requirements of highly concentrated groups of people. Now with the global population close to 8 billion, and all arable land already committed to food production, we are turning to technology to help fertilise soils and increase yields beyond what would have be...

The railway network in the UK is old and vast and home to the first public railway to use steam locomotives in the world. The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825 and connected coal mines in the northeast of England. It was the metal track, the coal-fired furnace, and the shrill whistle of the industrial steam engine that truly signalled the birth of the age of rail. But in the present d...