News

Latest SMART Infrastructure newsletter now online

12 April 2012

The latest issue includes interviews with two Australian infrastructure specialists, along with a report on a nation-wide consultation.

Added 12/04/2012

PM gives speech on infrastructure at ICE

19 March 2012

Prime Minister David Cameron has today delivered a speech at the Institution of Civil Engineers on the Government’s commitment to infrastructure in securing long term economic growth.

The Prime Minster used the speech to outline the Government’s desire to introduce new funding models for infrastructure, including through private investment and pension funds.

The prime minister said there was an urgent need to repair its “decades-long degradation” and to “build for the future with as much confidence and ambition as the Victorians once did”.

Added 19/03/2012

CIHT report on infrastructure funding

17 February 2012

The Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) and infrastructure specialists Parsons Brinckerhoff and Balfour Beatty have launched a detailed ‘route map’ for change, suggesting new models for funding transport infrastructure. The report gives ideas, solutions and recommendations to ensure UK infrastructure delivers economic growth to compete globally.

Added 19/03/2012

FP7 2013 Draft work programme

3 February 2012

Download the “non-paper” outlining areas of potential funding under the European FP7 programme for  2013 from the Surface Transport group’s document library.  Note you will need to be a member of the Surface Transport group in order to download this document.

Added 19/03/2012

Royal Academy of Engineering Smart Infrastructure report

January 2012

This report is a summary of discussions from a roundtable meeting at Royal Academy of Engineering in October 2011, investigating the use and meaning of smart and smart infrastructure. The sectors involved were energy, water, land and maritime transport, communications and the built environment.

Added 19/03/2012

IET Electricity transmission study

January 2012

IET Electricity transmission study analyses the whole life costs of installing and maintaining new high voltage transmission circuits under the ground, under the sea and over ground.

Added 19/03/2012

ICE call for 2012 Budget to translate infrastructure plan into action

February 2012

The Institution of Civil Engineers has used its 2012 Budget submission to urge the Government to realise the full potential of the National Infrastructure Plan.

The vision set out in the National Infrastructure Plan could deliver world class infrastructure for the 21st century – enabling the UK to compete in a modern world, creating jobs and economic growth and providing the stability for the UK to grow its engineering skills and capacity. But it called on the Chancellor to “avoid complacency” and translate plans into outcomes for the nation, through a package of new measures in the Budget.

The calls echo concerns from the CBI this week that more must be done to persuade pension funds that infrastructure presents a sound investment, and for Government to put more “flesh on the bones” of the infrastructure plan in the coming Budget. Key measures include:

  • Realistic levels of private funding from the potential sources identified in the National Infrastructure Plan.
  • Assign a senior minister with over-arching responsibility for the Government’s performance against the promises in the National Infrastructure Plan.
  • Create a simple set of performance measures for infrastructure.
  • Drive efficiency in the supply chain.
  • Increase in the support for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) subjects in education.

Added 24/02/2012

First ITRC output, the Fast Track Analysis report, now available to download

24 January 2012

The FTA study, A fast track analysis of strategies for infrastructure provision in Great Britain, suggests that carbon targets and rising global energy prices will be a driver of innovation in National Infrastructure. The report recommends the sectors involved to work more closely together to provide coordinated infrastructure systems as their networks become increasingly interdependent and complex. It also suggests the introduction of new measures to manage growing demand, like smart electricity meters, water meters and road pricing.

Infrastructure economics & policy workshop

24 February 2012, Novotel, Northbeach, Wollongong, Australia

The SMART Infrastructure Facility is facilitating a workshop to aid industry and government in understanding infrastructure economics and regulation, with an emphasis on its impact on infrastructure planning and management.

Added 18/01/2012

Newsletter from SMART Infrastructure

The SMART Infrastructure Facility is the national centre for infrastructure solutions in Australia, and is one of the largest infrastructure research facilities in the world. Their informative quarterly newsletter is available to download or sign up for an email version.

Added 22/11/2011