It is a very exciting time for UK infrastructure developments. Europe’s largest construction project, Crossrail will see its first trains run through central London by 2018 with completion planned for the following year. And there are many more major projects nationwide such as the A1 road improvements, or the installation of new hi-tech cabling that delivers offshore wind energy from Wales, the North West and North East. Projects like these drive national productivity growth and help build the skills to deliver and maintain our world-class infrastructure.

However, “Modern infrastructure projects commonly experience 50% overruns” says Bent Flyvbjerg Professor and inaugural Chair of Major Programme Management at Oxford University Saïd Business School. He adds that, “Demand and benefit forecasts are often wrong by between 20 and 70% on many projects with public passenger services being the worst performers. In his extensive research into ‘megaprojects’ of all types he concluded that misplaced optimism about outcomes, often deliberate misinformation in management and policy, and misrepresentation and deception are the main causes of overruns and subsequent cost escalation.

To flourish our growing populations need more and better infrastructure – the roads, bridges and other public facilities created for government agencies by civil engineers and construction companies. Costly overruns are typical in such projects, but experts agree that many challenges can be overcome through enhanced stakeholder collaboration.

By providing societies’ infrastructure, including water, transport, communications, energy and waste systems, civil engineering projects help communities to function, develop and strive. But much of the world’s and some of Britain’s infrastructure is inadequate and crumbling. And, growing populations will only need more of it.

According to McKinsey, a New York-based consulting firm, global investment in infrastructure needs to increase by 60%, to US$57 trillion worldwide, between now and 2030, just to support projected economic growth. But more spending is not the total answer; McKinsey estimates that improved civil engineering productivity could save US$1 trillion annually worldwide, putting pressure on the civil engineering industry to innovate.

When compared with constructing individual buildings or developments, large-scale civil engineering projects that underpin national economies are uniquely complex. And because projects are taxpayer funded, they are often under rigorous public scrutiny.

The Institution of Civil Engineering says, declining public financing for civil engineering projects requires that private money supplement public investment. And private backers are skilled at squeezing waste out of a project. As a result, increased demand for on-time, on-budget projects, coupled with a new focus on profits, is pressuring the civil engineering industry to embrace efficiency and become more productive. The rewards would be substantial national benefits without costing an extra penny.

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