communications & internet connectivity, green technologies & renewable power systems, education, housing, and healthcare. A wider appreciation of the infrastructure requirements to serve society as whole including both the city centre mass-transit system and the work from home rural broadband user is to be welcomed and will drive digital innovations as central to the concept of building back better. The future of investment in infrastructure may also be changing, with many jurisdictions showing an increased appetite for more direct state funding of infrastructure projects due to the low cost of government borrowing. A recent analysis of several major inter-urban road PPP projects here in Ireland1 highlighted that despite a significant reduction in traffic volumes and associated revenue due to the pandemic, the PPP companies in question remained in profit as a result of contractual clauses limiting their obligations to pass on payments to the state. Where private and public financing is blended to meet ambitious post pandemic funding goals, a more balanced approach to risk sharing could be imposed by governments and project developers. The rate at which digital disruptions revolutionise the world of engineering will unquestioningly increase if the anticipated increase in infrastructure funding is realised post the pandemic. While these types of innovations have transformed so many areas of our lives, from how we communicate to our shopping habits, we have a responsibility as engineers to encourage both investment and innovation where it can have the greatest positive impact with a focus on sustainable civil and environmental value in addition to profit. The engineering design and construction sectors provide an excellent example of the need for market driven innovation to deliver positive improvements to facilitate engineers who are at the forefront of the delivery of resilient and sustainable infrastructure. While digital disruption in engineering and construction continues to open exciting opportunities for innovation, we as engineers must focus this progress on areas such as the water sector, which currently lacks in both investment and public attention.
1
Thomas Herbert, https://thecurrency.news/ 29th July 2021
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