The Infrastructure Podcast

Today’s podcast takes a deep dive into High Speed 2 via the recently published Stewart Review, a detailed piece of work which attempts to help government to learn lessons and take stock from this much discussed project. And I’m pleased to say that to help me with this task today I am joined by the report’s author, James Stewart, long-standing infrastructure finance and delivery expert who I know w...

In today’s episode we will focus on the state of public infrastructure in the United States of America. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers releases what’s been called “the nation’s most important report you’ve probably never heard of” - the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.  Using a simple A–F grading scale, it assesses the state of everything from roads, bridges, an...

In today's podcast we’re going to explore the UK government's latest announcement to invest vast sums of public cash in the nuclear industry. The latest spending review included £14.2bn to kickstart the Sizewell C plant and £2.5bn to underpin ongoing research into fusion technology. But crucially, it also outlined plans to pump £2.5bn into Small Modular Reactor development – something th...

Today’s podcast is another special episode, this week recorded live in New York at the recent Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit hosted by Bentley Systems. My guest is Aruna Miller, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland State, who I interviewed to open the summit with a discussion on her role in the recovery and rebuild of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge which catastrophically collapsed...

Today’s podcast is a special episode recorded live at Bauma 2025 in Munich—the global showcase for construction technology innovation. My guest today is Ivan Di Federico, the newly appointed President and CEO of Topcon Positioning Systems , a leader in geo-positioning and construction technology, with solutions that are being used everywhere in infrastructure and agriculture today. Ivan steps into...

In this week's podcast  we talk about the challenges of building a career in the complex modern world of structural engineering. My guest today is Claire Gott, Head of Structures at global consultancy WSP - an engineer whose work has helped shape some of the most ambitious and high-profile structures in the UK and beyond but who has also devoted large parts of her career to date helping and e...

In today's podcast we look at the world of nuclear decommissioning Nuclear power has played a vital role in the UK’s energy story for more than half a century. But as the country transitions toward a low-carbon future, there’s another story unfolding—one of responsibility, innovation, and transformation. The story of the decommissioning. At the heart of this story is the UK Nuclear Decommissi...

In today's podcast we focus on the UK’s mammoth, unprecedented, and, often, highly controversial water investment challenge. As climate pressures mount, population grows, and economic demands increase, the security of our water supply is becoming a defining issue for national resilience.  Last December, Ofwat’s latest Price Review - PR24 – underscored the scale of that challenge, with more th...

In today's podcast we focus on decarbonising the UK’s vast building stock. The global buildings sector is one of the most essential but also perhaps the most overlooked frontiers in the fight against climate change.  Homes, offices, shops, schools, and factories - they're where we live, where we work, and where we gather. They are the fabric of our society.  But, as highlighted by a new...

In today's podcast we delve into the world of Artificial Intelligence to explore the future of infrastructure and technology - and the people reshaping both.  To do this we’re diving into one of the biggest - and most urgent - challenges facing the built environment: namely how we manage and maintain our ageing infrastructure in a world of rising costs, growing risks, and tightening resources...

In today's podcast we focus on hydrogen – zero carbon fuel of the future or an exercise in wishful thinking? That said, as the UK sharpens its focus on delivering a net zero future, hydrogen is increasingly taking centre stage in the national energy conversation.  Touted as one of the cleanest and most versatile fuels available, hydrogen holds significant promise for decarbonising hard-to-aba...

In today's podcast we focus on the global infrastructure market and find out what the UK might do to accelerate its ambitions to drive economic growth from infrastructure investment. My guest today is Jake Mumm, General Manager for Public Infrastructure at global construction design and delivery business Bechtel - someone who has spent the last three decades at the coal face of some of the mo...

In today’s podcast we takes a close look at the evolution and future challenges of tall building design with engineering design mega star Kamran Moazami. Kamran is WSP’s managing director for property and buildings and with nearly half a century of design experience under his belt – most recently on projects such as The Shard, 22 Bishopsgate, and One Blackfriars, he is certainly the man to ask! It...

Today's podcast is another special episode recorded live in front of an audience for the second of the latest Twin Talks interview series hosted by Bentley Systems. As with the first TwinTalk event with construction minister Sarah Jones MP, today’s episode heads to Parliament for a conversation with Lee Pitcher, MP for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, chair of the all Party Parliamenta...

In today’s podcast takes a close inspection of the UK’s ever-deteriorating local roads condition.  This year marks the 30th anniversary of the ALARM survey – the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey – which for three decades has been the crucial benchmark for assessing the state of local roads across England and Wales.  Commissioned by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), the report was...

In today’s podcast we return to the vitally important, hugely complicated and normally highly emotive subject of planning reform. And help is (potentially) at hand in the form of the long awaited Planning and Infrastructure Bill which was published last week and heralded by government as providing “transformative reforms to get Britain building, tackle blockers and unleash billions in economic gro...

In today’s podcast we take a deep dive into embodied carbon and try to get a better understanding of why infrastructure professionals need to make its assessment more than just a nice add on but a fundamental part of the design process. The construction and infrastructure sectors are undergoing a major transformation as the industry seeks to reduce its carbon footprint and meet global net-zero tar...

Today we head back to the vitally important issue of housing and attempt to understand the UK’s complex, and some might say, largely dysfunctional housing retrofit market. It is a market that is rapidly evolving, driven by ambitious government policies, rising energy costs, and increasing public demand for sustainable, lower cost living. But with a housing stock that is among the oldest in Europe,...

In today’s episode we dive into the UK’s deepening housing crisis– specifically looking at affordable housing where demand is still far outstripping supply.  Despite ambitious government targets to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, the reality is that we are still only seeing 50,000 to 60,000 affordable homes being built each year - far short of the estimated 145,000 required...

In today's podcast we explore the role that academia and research can and must play in transforming infrastructure into the modern, joined up, innovative sector needed to deliver a sustainable future for communities. My guest is Jeni Giambona, Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise at the University of Southampton Business School , where she is also a Professor and a Member of th...

In today’s episode we head back into the corridors of power to talk to Mike Reader Member of Parliament for Northampton South and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infrastructure. And after my recent conversation with Sarah Jones MP, minister of state for Business and net zero it will be interesting to contrast this government view of the nation’s infrastructure ambition with one from...

In today special 100th episode we shift to the heart of the UK government to hear first-hand from Construction Minister Sarah Jones MP about how she intends to embrace and accelerate infrastructure investment as a means to deliver the government’s overarching mission for economic growth. The podcast was recorded live in front of an invited audience of professionals at last week’s Twin Talks breakf...

Today's podcast is episode 99 and we are going to talk about the challenge of modern contracting.  There is no doubt that we are in a world where infrastructure investment is well and truly back in fashion.  That’s true whether we are transforming our energy future, racing to meet a net zero goals, improving lives and community, protecting the environment, solving the housing crisis or indeed...

In today's podcast we go Stateside to catch up on what is happening in the US as the global super power prepares for the latest iteration of the Donald Trump Presidency and as Los Angeles struggles to contain and recover from catastrophic wild fires. My guest today is Steve Burrows, ICE Representative for the West Coast of the USA . Steve is based in San Francisco and, after a global career i...

In today’s podcast we try to understand how the infrastructure investment we have planned across the UK can actually be turned into better sustainable outcomes for communities.  To tackle this hugely important issue, my guest today is Professor Jim Hall, the 160th President of the Institution of Civil Engineers , professor of climate and environmental risks at the University of Oxford and commissi...