Civil engineers are leading a call for evidence on the UK's future infrastructure needs, which is intended to feed into the work of the National Infrastructure Commission.
Commission member and Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) president Sir John Armitt, is chairing an evidence-based infrastructure needs assessment. The coalition producing the assessment has now launched the written evidence gathering phase.
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Is less more for infrastructure?
In a blog post, Sir John wrote: 'I believe the engineering community and other professions have a collective responsibility to inform this evidence base and play a part in enabling decision-making which benefits everyone in society.'
Sir John pointed to a recent survey revealing that 87% of the public support infrastructure investment, while a similar number (85%) want improvements to existing infrastructure.
Sir John made clear that he is not merely looking for pitches for new infrastructure.
He wrote: 'The answer is not always to simply build more, but to question why we are doing something; what we want to achieve. Can we make more efficient use of existing infrastructure for example? Constraints such as affordability and public acceptability will also be considered.'
Richard Hayes, chief executive of the Institute of Highway Engineers, told Transport Network that he supported Sir John's approach. He said: 'I would encourage them to ask, "do we continue to build for the sake of building or do we address it in a different way, such as demand management?" This is a sensible way to go about it.'
Mr Hayes added: 'We need to think about looking after what we've already got. The motorway network is coming up to 50 years old and we are due for a major infrastructure renewal. Perhaps the balance needs to be about modal shift. The country needs to carry out an examination of what it needs in terms of multi-modal transport.'
Mike Ashworth, chair of the transport board at the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) told Transport Network: 'The call is very useful and may gather information in a collective and rational way to inform the commission. However I would expect that there will be many more ways in which information should be fed into the process, not least of which is through the sub-national transport boards.'
The ICE's written consultation closes on 29 February and will be followed by a series of evidence hearings and workshops around the country.
