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CONTENTS 02.09.10
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NewCivilEngineer
ncc:
www.nce.CO.UK
New Civil Engineer
1stFloor,GreaterLondonHouse HampsteadRoad,LondonNW17EJ
EDITORIALENQUIRIES Tel:(020) 77284544 (fax 4666) Email: prefix plus @emap.com EDiTOR1Antony Oliver (020) 77284541 antony.oliver DEPUTY EDITOR1JackieWhitelaw (020) 77284542 jackie.whitelaw
MANAGING EDITOR1Mark Hansford (020)7728 4543 mark.hansford NEWS EDITOR1AlexandraWynne (020)77284540 alexandra.wynne SENIORREPORTER1EdOwen
(020) 77284545 ed.owen
REPORTER1Jo Stimpson (020) 7728 4544 jo.stimpson REPORTER1DeclanLynch (020) 7728 4546 declan.lynch ADVERTISING
DISPLAYADVERTISING1FrancisBarham
(020) 7728 4525
RECRUITMENT1Victoria Williams (020) 7728 3825
le 1 3 SEP.2010
"www.nce.co.uk1 02.09.10 NEWCIVILENGINEER3
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INTERNATIONAL
New Orleans
Massivepost-Katrinaflood defenceprogrammeis underway
08
NEWS
Swansea shuts road
Welsh council unable to afford repairs to unsafe street
COVERIMAGE:KERRYMALONE
16
ROADS
Big Squeeze Ml wideningjob is
completedahead of schedule
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Graduates,HS2,project costs,war on motorists
25 Sea defences
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32 ICENews
Input on CDM regulation needed
Comment
AntonyOliver
IIProvidingdecent modern infrastrudure is not quick, rarely simple and never cheap"
We (annol afford 10 underinvesl in infraslrudure
If you need an example of the impact that decent infrastructure - or the lack of it - has on people's lives, then look no further than New Orleans.
It is five years SiliceHurricane Katrina caused catastrophic flooding that devastated the city, killed over 2,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless. For the United States, thisevent was without question a humbling experience.
Despite its wealth and technological capa- bility, this storm highlighted the nation's fundamental failure to properly invest in the basic flood defence infrastructure capable of protecting the public from such an event and then coping with the devastation afterwards.
And while a storm of Katrina's magnitude is hard to plan for, it is clear that the US recognises that, politically, it cannot afford to leave its population so exposed in future.
It took rime coming but cash and resources have been made available. Yet despite spending around flobn on new ln
e
flood defences, large parts of the city -large numbers of people - remain exposed to the risk of flooding. For these, largely rOOf, communities the city cali still only guarantee wamings and evacuation.
As New Orleans is discovering, providing decent modem infrastructure is DOtquick, is rarely simple and never cheap. Retrofitting a 100%effective flood defence system is a tough challenge.
And whether you are in a developed nation like the US, or a developing nation like Paki- stan, finding sufficient resources to "catch up" Fast underspending on infrastructure is near impossible.
Here in the UK, we are all too aware of this factoLook at the on-going challenge facing the UK rail network which, despite massive public investment over the last 10 years, is still struggling to overcome the wholesale underinvestment of preceding decades.
And the approaching tenth anniversary of the Hatfield crash and last month's Porters
Bar inquest remind us that failure to prop- erly invest cali easily cost lives.
It is a similar story across the UK's local roads where virtually every local authority is reporting massive repair and maintenance backlogs. The danger to the public is high- lighted graphically this week by the enforced closure in Swansea of a stretch of road which the council cannot afford to make safe following a rock fall.
Such funding shortfalls are expected to get worse with October's Comprehensive Spending Review poised to axe huge swathes from local authority budgets.
So while we need to continue to make the case for investment in decent modern infrastructure we also need to be aware of the equally real pressure on the public puIse.
As NCE continues to stress, the future of infrastructure is about delivering more for less- but as New Orleans demonstrates, it is unlikely to be easy.
