The Infrastructure Podcast

In this podcast …. well it’s just me.  Just me doing a very quick recap of 2023 and the first 45 episodes of The Infrastructure Podcast - and a brief trail for what lies ahead in 2024. When I set out on this podcasting adventure back in February, I billed it as being a new, regular podcast series featuring conversations with some of the key leaders and influencers from across UK infrastructure sec...

In this podcast  we will be examining energy transition and asking what the UK has to do to deliver on its ambition to electrify the future economy. The National Infrastructure Commission’s latest five yearly Assessment highlights a number of strategic priorities for the UK, not least the need to accelerate the energy sector’s move away from fossil fuels to ensure we reach our net zero emissions t...

In this podcast we  talk once again about EVs – Electric Vehicles - this time about how to get power into them safely and securely.  Almost exactly two years ago my guest today Kate Tyrrell launched a brand new business in response to her constant fears and frustrations over the variability of quality and lack of information about the increasing number of EV charging stations popping up all over t...

In this podcast we take a quick tour of Liverpool’s latest landmark, the new Everton Football Club Stadium which is taking shape in an old dock on the banks of the River Mersey. And having played at their current Goodison Park home ground since it opened in 1892, there will be significant expectation that this new £500M, 52,888 seater stadium will be up to the job -  and a venue capable of inspiri...

For today’s discussion I suggest that you buckle up as we take a freewheeling dive into the world of behavioural science to find out how a focus on human psychology might radically transform our infrastructure and transportation planning.  My guest today is globally renowned behavioural scientist and leading disruptive thinker Rory Sutherland who, frankly blew my mind when I heard him speak at the...

Today’s podcast is all a bit different as it is recorded in the heart of the massive Old Oak Common Station which is under construction in West London as part of the HS2 rail project. Given the amount of discussion and hand wringing across the political and infrastructure sector since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak abruptly cancelled the northern section of the project back in October, I thought I’d b...

In this latest podcast we  explore the role that investment in infrastructure can play to accelerate the global journey to net zero. So, where to start? Well, the UK National Infrastructure Commission recently highlighted the huge challenge that we face globally to decarbonise our economies – essentially pointing out that our path towards creating a truly sustainable future has only just begun.  O...

In this podcast we discuss the challenge of Transforming Infrastructure Performance through accelerating our use of data and the Internet of Things (IOT). It’s a concept which having been tabled by the UK Government’s Infrastructure and Projects Authority, is now, without question, top of mind for every cash-strapped public and private asset owner and operator looking to close the gap between outc...

In this podcast we look in some detail at the National Infrastructure Commission’s recently released Second National Infrastructure Assessment. As I’m sure you will know, the National Infrastructure Commission’s role is to provide the UK Government with impartial, expert advice on major long term infrastructure challenges. It’s first five yearly National Infrastructure Assessment was published in...

In today’s podcast we will be expanding our minds to hear some of the very latest thinking around how the infrastructure sector is set to continue accelerating its towards digitisation, embracing the use of data and building expanding its so-called “infrastructure intelligence”. The podcast is recorded in Singapore at the 2023 Bentley Systems Year in Infrastructure event in the very impressive Mar...

In this latest podcast we attempt to shed some light on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest Network North proposal. This new package of rail and road improvements was outlined at the recent Conservative Party Conference and trumpeted as a better value alternative to the simultaneously cancelled northern section of the HS2 project which had been scheduled to link Birmingham with Manchester.  We hav...

In this episode we return to a discussion about the UK’s vital mobile telecommunications network. Having dipped a toe into this critical sector of the infrastructure market in Episode 19 with Belinda Fawcett of Cornerstone - do check it out - we are back on the subject by what can only be described as popular demand. As I discussed in May, having highspeed internet connectivity beaming into our de...

Today is a rather special episode in which were are going to look back over half a century of an engineering career - and no doubt leap forward, sideways, upwards and wherever else to predict the future. Back in November 2001 when I was editor of New Civil Engineer magazine, I interviewed today’s guest Mark Whitby . He was just about to take on the role of President of the Institution of Civil Eng...

This latest podcast was recorded in Oslo, Norway at the 2023 buildingSmart International Standards Summit, the annual gathering for all those leading the development and adoption of open data and digital systems across the global infrastructure sector. Clearly the built environment sector faces many challenges such as the need to raise productivity, drive towards net zero and boost the economic an...

In this podcast we talk about the future of transport with Iain Stewart MP, chair of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee . In January 2023 the Transport Select Committee kicked off its Our Future Transport campaign, in which the public was invited to pitch ideas on what the Committee should investigate. Over 220 ideas were submitted on a range of topics leading to the shortlisting of 1...

In this podcast we discuss the tricky issue of engaging and winning over communities when planning and delivering new infrastructure projects and policies. Someone once said that a lie can be half way around the world before the truth has even got its boots on. Well in today’s social media driven 24 hour news cycle I would say that the truth is likely to be even further behind nowadays. When it co...

Today we delve into the world of communication and examine the challenges faced by infrastructure professionals when it comes to winning buy-in for new ideas, policies and projects. That’s buy in from the public and from politicians. I have described this process as creating the Stories to communicate change. Well let’s discuss this! It is a stark reality that the experts charged with planning, de...

In this podcast we talk about the need to modernise UK construction. I have been writing about this sector for close to three decades and this subject has been a consistent and infuriatingly repetitive issue. A bit of background to set the scene around three decades of reports an initiatives.  In 1994, the Latham Review kicked things off and set out the need for collaboration and single teams, to...

In this podcast we talk about the challenge and opportunities of reforming the UK rail network and specifically ask how this vast and complex national asset can be effectively and successfully transitioned back under public sector control and management. A bit of background: In May 2021 the Williams/Shapps Plan for Rail set out the government's plan for transformation. In short, the plan will...

This podcast is about about “the power of employee ownership” and discusses why so many firms are moving towards this model as a means to attract and retain talent and to help focus minds and resources on the value of investing in skills and innovation. Clearly, other ownership models are available. For example, the engineering consulting sector has seen huge change of late with the emergence of a...

In this podcast we talk about the challenge of creating a circular economy in the built environment as key to working towards a sustainable, net zero carbon emission future.  Last month a new movement was launched across infrastructure at the World Circular Economy Forum with a vision for a built environment whose purpose is, and I quote: “to enable people and nature to flourish together for gener...

In this podcast we are going global and focusing the conversation around the findings of a new report published recently by Economist Impact called Infrastructure for Good – Building for a better world. The report has been produced in association with Duke University in the US and is supported by global consultancy Deloitte. There's a link to the report in the resources section below. Essenti...

In today's podcast we are talking about EVs – Electric Vehicles. Specifically, we are going to look at what has to happen to ensure that the process or refuelling an electric or hybrid vehicle is as painless as popping petrol or diesel into a conventional fuel tank.  The conundrum of how and where to charge up the vast number of new EVs now flooding onto the UK’s streets is being wrestled wit...

This podcast gets stuck into the art of brilliant infrastructure client behaviour. Well what’s that - and why does it matter? Surely the client’s the client and whatever they say goes – the supply chains task is to deliver. Well absolutely yes – and absolutely no. Getting projects set up for success from the start is the fundamental job of the client. Brilliant client behaviour allows the project...

Let me start with a story. Last year I completed an epic nine-day, 1000 mile cycle adventure from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for my local hospice, St Christophers in Sydenham South London (there’s a link below – please do support their latest What Matters Most campaign). It was an interesting and rather challenging few days. We used well planned routes that kept us off the main roa...