Editor’s message and July/August 2018 magazine download

The latest print edition of Infrastructure Intelligence features an interview with Heathrow Airport’s chief executive and celebrates industry award winners, says editor Andy Walker in his latest editor's comment.

Andy Walker
19 July 2018

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Click here to download the July/August 2018 edition of Infrastructure Intelligence

The infrastructure sector is rightly celebrating the welcome news that Heathrow expansion has been given the go-ahead by MPs. However, as ACE chief executive Nelson Ogunshakin points out in an article on page 20, it has to be pointed out that Heathrow’s expansion has been nearly 30 years in the making and bulldozers are only expected to start work in 2021. 

When it comes to major infrastructure projects, too often we see delay and dithering from decision makers and it’s time that we had a rethink of how our infrastructure is commissioned. While in no way wishing to circumnavigate the political process, so important as citizens must have a democratic input into decisions affecting their lives, there must be a better way of making infrastructure investment decisions, especially where there is political consensus on what needs to be done.

We look at the Heathrow decision and its ramifications in this issue (p6-7, p11, p20) and also examine public-private sector collaboration on infrastructure delivery more widely (p16-17). Collaboration is key and no more so than in the digital sphere and we have a round up from the recent European CIO Conference (p4-5) and also take a look at how Network Rail is working in partnership with its supply chain on delivering the Digital Railway programme (p14-15).

Elsewhere, we celebrate the industry’s top talent by profiling the winners of this year’s Consultancy and Engineering Awards (p21-27) and also highlight the 16 young voices shaping the future of UK infrastructure as part of the National Infrastructure Commission’s Young Professionals Panel (p30-31) - an essential initiative that is set to make a real difference.

So, another packed issue with, I hope, something to interest all our readers.

Andy Walker is the editor of Infrastructure Intelligence.

Click here to download the July/August 2018 edition of Infrastructure Intelligence.