Engineering Matters

Lismore sits at the confluence of two rivers in New South Wales. Covering more than 1,300 square kilometres, it is home to more than 44,000 people. In 2022, it was hit by a huge flood, the highest on record, followed by a smaller, though still devastating, second flood. Five lives were lost in the disasters, along with 500 properties, making 2,000 people homeless at a cost of AUD 350M in damages. 

The event raised critical questions about flood prevention and planning. It underscored the urgent need for more resilient approaches to town and city planning, that anticipate extreme events and protect communities and economic activities more effectively.

Engeny were initially brought in to improve flood protection, before the flooding demonstrated the existential need for this work. This episode looks at the protection work so far, how it has evolved after the flood, and future plans to meet the increasing risks.

Guest

Mark Page, Government Sector Lead, Engeny

Partner

Egis is a leading global architectural, consulting, construction engineering, operations and mobility services firm. Egis creates and operates intelligent infrastructure and buildings that both respond to the climate emergency and contribute to balanced, sustainable and resilient development.

Its 22,000 employees operate across over 100 countries, deploying their expertise to develop and deliver cutting-edge innovations and solutions for clients. Through the wide range of its activities, Egis plays a central role in the collective organisation of society and the living environment of citizens all over the world.

The post #359a Australia’s Most Flooded Town first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Society needs to consider the impact of climate change on our cities because it is no longer a future challenge; it is a present reality. Cities with their concentrated populations, infrastructure and supply challenges are uniquely vulnerable to climate-related shocks, exposed to risks such as floods, heatwaves, water scarcity and any disruption to their systems.

Engineers and decision-makers must embed sustainability and resilience into every stage of the planning and design process to ensure adaptability to these changes. 

In this introduction to a series on sustainable approaches to the global built environment, we begin a journey that will take us around the world, to meet engineers on the front lines of this civilisational challenge.

Guest

Thomas Salvant, Chief Executive Officer – Energy and Sustainable Cities, Egis

Partner

Egis is a leading global architectural, consulting, construction engineering, operations and mobility services firm. Egis creates and operates intelligent infrastructure and buildings that both respond to the climate emergency and contribute to balanced, sustainable and resilient development. 

Its 22,000 employees operate across over 100 countries, deploying their expertise to develop and deliver cutting-edge innovations and solutions for clients. Through the wide range of its activities, Egis plays a central role in the collective organisation of society and the living environment of citizens all over the world.

The post #359 Intro – A Sustainable and Resilient World first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Residents of tall buildings can face significant risks in the event of fire or structural failure. At Grenfell Tower in the UK, a fire in a resident’s kitchen spread rapidly around the building, due to failures in the testing and installation of cladding materials, and leading to widespread loss of life. 

The inquiry into the fire revealed how overlooked risks can line up, causing disaster. The 2022 Building Safety Act established that dutyholders—owners and developers—of buildings like this should employ competent professionals. The challenge these dutyholders now face is to identify those professionals.

The Engineering Council in the UK has established a means to do this, through the Higher Risk Buildings Register. In this episode, Chris O’Regan, chair of the joint ICE/IStructE committee that developed the register, explains the skills and expertise needed from engineers working on these structures. This goes beyond technical expertise: Chris highlights the need for empathy with residents, and a demonstrated ability to collaborate with professionals from other disciplines.

Guest

Chris O’Regan, chair, ICE/IStructE Higher Risk Buildings Register Committee; associate director, Mason Navarro Pledge

The post #358 Experts in Risk first appeared on Engineering Matters.

A wise asset owner builds on solid ground. Unless ground risks are clearly identified, projects can easily be delayed or delivered over budget. Some risks may not even be fully understood until an asset begins operations. In this final episode of three on ground risks and the asset life cycle, Karim Khalaf explains how one major European vehicle manufacturer only learned how the soil beneath their new manufacturing plant would act, once steel presses started working—effectively inducing a series of small earthquakes and setting foundations floating off the apparently solid sand they stood on.

Assumptions about ground conditions can lead to costly and time-consuming emergencies during construction. An unexpected cavity, for example, may mean that work has to stop until the site is properly modelled. In the past, that could involve substantial costs and lengthy delays, as heavy geotechnical equipment is deployed. But, with the careful use of geophysical screening, answers can be delivered quickly, and work resumed, with costs kept under control.

Rod Eddies describes how these two sets of techniques, namely broad geophysical screening and strategic geotechnical investigations, can be used together to create a detailed 3D model of the subsurface. This can be shared and used by those making strategic decisions, as well as by technical specialists and other stakeholders. Matt Waddicor of Fermi Development, who we heard from in the first episode, rounds up the advantages of using this approach throughout the asset life cycle, and shares how early investigations may support on time and on budget delivery, across the infrastructure sector.

Guests

Matt Waddicor, Development Programme Director, Fermi Development

Rod Eddies, Solutions Director, Land, Fugro

Karim Khalaf, Regional Business Line Manager, Middle East, Fugro

Partner

Fugro is the world’s leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analysing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Through integrated data acquisition, analysis and advice, Fugro unlocks insights from geo-data to help clients design, build and operate their assets in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.

The post #357c Well-Grounded Decisions: Construction and Operations first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Without a clear understanding of ground conditions, unquantified risk can be transferred from project owner to lead contractors when a contract is signed. In the first episode of this three part series, we explored how geophysical screening, using non-intrusive methods, can be used to reduce uncertainty in site selection and provide clarity on construction costs and delivery schedules.

In this episode, we move past the final investment decision, to the development of project designs. Karim Khalaf, Regional Business Line Manager, Middle East, at Fugro, explains how one client commissioned a new method of site screening, ambient noise tomography, to check subsurface conditions before starting work on building a stormwater pumping station in Doha, Qatar. 

Not every project owner performs this sort of early geophysical investigation. However, as Rod Eddies explains, the Geo-Risk Management Framework can still be applied by lead contractors as they complete designs and schedule construction work. We learn how early screening can provide a basis for more detailed geotechnical techniques, using boreholes and cone penetration testing. This approach gives clients the answers they need, when they need them, while minimising the need to deploy heavy equipment.

Guests

Rod Eddies, Solutions Director, Land, Fugro

Karim Khalaf, Regional Business Line Manager, Middle East, Fugro

The post #357b Well-Grounded Decisions: Design Development first appeared on Engineering Matters.

On any project, uncertainty creates risk. Decisions that are made without a good understanding of site conditions can result in overengineering or threats to safety. Delivery may be delayed, and unexpected costs incurred. To avoid these risks, project owners and other stakeholders should question their assumptions and get real, actionable insights throughout the project lifecycle.

In this three-part series, we explore a key source of risk to any project, subsurface conditions, and a new approach that builds certainty from the ground up. In this first episode, Rod Eddies, Solutions Director, Land, at Fugro, explains the development of the Geo-Risk Management Framework, a way of thinking about subsurface risks that builds on research on cognitive bias. We learn about GroundIQ®, a new approach to ground risk management that provides earlier, faster, and better site characterization.

Early screening allows project developers to identify suitable sites and more accurately predict delivery times and costs before a final investment decision is made. Fermi Developments is a privately-funded nuclear developer, working to deliver ‘Ready to Build’ small modular reactor sites across the UK. The company recently formed a strategic partnership with Fugro, under which the geo-data specialists will support their work from site selection all the way through to delivery. In this episode, Fermi’s Matt Waddicor explains how this new approach to risk will help the developer identify suitable sites and prepare well-grounded proposals for investors.

Guests

Matt Waddicor, Development Programme Director, Fermi Development

Rod Eddies, Solutions Director, Land, Fugro

Karim Khalaf, Regional Business Line Manager, Middle East, Fugro

The post #357 Well-Grounded Build Decisions (Part 1): Site Selection first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Wastewater treatment is an overlooked lifesaver. While the medical advances of the last 100 years—penicillin, chemotherapy, and, more recently, mRNA vaccines—have transformed healthcare, keeping our water supplies free from pathogens like cholera and dysentery, has saved many more lives. The systems developed to treat wastewater are so successful that we can afford to flush and forget.

But this is infrastructure we must not overlook. Growing populations, increased use by industry, and regulations that get tighter as we learn of new threats to human life and the environment, are putting wastewater treatment facilities under strain. Existing plants are often tucked away on constrained sites, and work as part of a sprawling network of sewage systems that make it extremely difficult for them to be relocated.

This is very much the case at Ringsend in Dublin. Here, on a site bounded by other facilities and the sea, the waste produced by millions of Dubliners—and the city’s industry and commerce—must be processed before being discharged into the Liffey Estuary. To update the plant, its owners had considered building a 9km pipe to discharge waste outside of the sensitive areas of the estuary.

But a new solution was identified. By implementing a novel form of biological treatment, developed by Haskoning, Egis was able to ensure that the effluent discharged was so clean, it would be safe for wildlife. But installing this would take careful planning and scheduling, in order to complete the work in tight constraints, without any pause in plant operations.

Guests

Marisa Buyers-Basso, associate director, Haskoning

Marcus Fagan, chartered engineer, Egis

Partner

Egis is a leading global architectural, consulting, engineering, operations and mobility services firm with 22,000 employees across more than 100 countries. The company designs and operates intelligent infrastructure and buildings that both respond to climate emergencies and contribute to balanced, sustainable and resilient development. 

Egis has operated in Ireland since 1994 and is the largest multi-disciplinary consultancy, engineering and operations firm in the country. Its current activities in Ireland include operating the Dublin Tunnel and the Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, overseeing 1,200km of Ireland’s motorways. It is also active in the design and delivery of major transportation programmes, renewable energy and water and waste water projects. With over 600 staff in Ireland across 16 offices and sites nationwide, it is committed to enabling sustainable economic development and responding to the requirements of population growth while addressing climate change and reducing carbon emissions. 

The post #356 Making Space for Wastewater Treatment first appeared on Engineering Matters.

Green-grey engineering combines nature-based solutions with traditional civil engineering. It can be used in flood protection, with mangroves acting as a first line of defense rather than relying wholly on seawalls or earthen berms. As parts of the world face dual threats of flood and drought, the same systems can incorporate drainage and water collection.

Unlike traditional civil engineering, nature-based solutions offer a wide range of additional benefits. Mangroves act as fish nurseries feeding local communities and boosting economies. They sequester carbon, helping limit climate change. They provide opportunities for tourism. And they provide significant flood protection, boosting resilience. 

But there is a need to scale and accelerate funding to address the loss and protection of coastal ecosystems and the true value they represent. 

A new analytical framework, Net Ecosystem Value, offers a tool to inform this need. Rich geodata insights, analysis and scenario modelling combined with local knowledge and academic research. This environmental and economic accounting demonstrates the true value of investing in these solutions, as well as the cost of doing nothing.

By providing more granularity, rather than relying on global assumptions, this supports the development of relevant financial mechanisms such as blue bonds. By taking a whole-of-ecosystem approach, Net Ecosystem Value is able to show the true value of investing in coastal zones as critical infrastructure that accounts for blue carbon, fisheries, resilience, biodiversity, livelihoods, and social and cultural values

In this episode, Alpa Bhattacharjee and Rod Braun explain the broad range of benefits these ecosystems offer, and the progress that is being made to incorporate them alongside traditional civil engineering solutions.

Guests

Alpa Bhattacharjee, Climate and Nature – Blue Finance Advisory, Fugro

Rod Braun, Senior Director, Conservation International

Image credit

Alex Mustard / Ocean Image Bank

Partner

Fugro is the world’s leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analysing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Through integrated data acquisition, analysis and advice, Fugro unlocks insights from geo-data to help clients design, build and operate their assets in a safe, sustainable and efficient manner.

The post #355 The Real Value of Nature first appeared on Engineering Matters.

The infrastructure sector is adopting AI with enthusiasm. A new whitepaper from Bentley Systems, Pinsent Masons, Turner & Townsend, and Mott Macdonald, The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Built Environment, surveyed the sector, and found the 48% of the infrastructure companies they spoke to were trialling AI, or had already implemented it. But only one fifth had a comprehensive AI policy, more than a third had no organisational policy, and 37% had only limited project controls, or none at all.

As part of Bentley Systems Year In Infrastructure series of events, Mark Coates hosted a panel discussion on the white paper. Bringing together key members of the infrastructure sector—engineers, contractors, and lawyers—the panel discussed how infrastructure businesses can implement a project management approach to AI implementation.

In this episode, Mark Coates joins us to examine some of the risks associated with AI adoption, and particularly of ‘stealth adoption’, happening outside of organisational guardrails. The panel discussion members bring their own perspectives, explaining how AI can be used successfully now, and the organisational, data management, and contractual steps needed to ensure its safe, ethical, and efficient use across complex supply chains.

Guests

Mark Coates, vice president of infrastructure policy alignment, Bentley Systems

Yeunjin (YJ) Kim, AI technical lead, group AI, Mott MacDonald

Anne-Marie Friel, partner, infrastructure, Pinsent Masons

Guy Beaumont, director, digital lead, Turner & Townsend

Resources

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Built Environment,

Partner

Infrastructure is too big to fail, so you need AI you can trust. Bentley Systems is delivering infrastructure-ready AI across design, construction, and operations. As the partner of choice for engineering firms and owner-operators worldwide, Bentley’s software and digital twin solutions span engineering disciplines, industry sectors, and all phases of the infrastructure lifecycle, unlocking the value of data to transform project delivery and asset performance.

The post #354 AI in Infrastructure: Adoption and Guardrails first appeared on Engineering Matters.

This week, the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, or EAC, released a report on environmental sustainability and housing growth. The UK government is striving to meet a target of building one and a half million new homes, and has raised concerns about the risk that environmental objections could delay their construction. But, the...

The post #353 Carbon Assessment in a Time of Housebuilding first appeared on Engineering Matters.