Sponsored column: Infrastructure projects are no longer boring

Traditional perceptions of infrastructure projects are like my opinion of the latest upgrades to the M1 and M62. Tedious, annoying, costly and ultimately of little benefit to anyone.
Andrew WilsonAndrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson

This statement should be caveated by the fact that I am fully aware that £1 spent on infrastructure projects leads to an increase of £4 in the local economy!

However, technology is changing the perception of infrastructure as ‘boring’. Examples include Tesla’s recent bet with the South Australian Government that they would be able to install a system to store energy from wind farms (including the largest and most powerful lithium battery in the world) in just 100 days, the proviso being that it be provided free of charge if they failed.

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Google’s Deepmind also suggested that it could cut the entire UK energy bill by 10 per cent using artificial intelligence. Both projects are representative of new ideas making public services more efficient and cheaper. Furthermore, each has positive environmental side effects and will help countries achieve the goals set by the Paris climate accord.

Elsewhere, technology is driving improvements in the production of roads. It is helping the delivery of ‘all in one’ solutions that significantly reduce the time and cost associated with laying them. With Highways England having announced a plan to invest £1.5bn in smart motorways, the companies that have spent time and money developing this technology are likely to benefit significantly.

Although the benefits of the aforementioned examples are obvious, the advantages of technology can be best articulated by comparison.

Let’s consider the tech-nological outlook for High Speed 2, the proposed railway linking London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. The Government’s £56bn project, intended for delivery in 2032-33, is expected to reduce the journey time of a 210-mile journey to one hour and 24 minutes. However, the Hyperloop technology being led by Tesla could potentially make a longer journey from London to Edinburgh in under 30 minutes.

A thought to ponder, maybe?