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GALE FORCE Wind power is picking up momentum, says EDF Energy Renewables’ Christian Egal (P86) FAST TRACK The UK has been slow to adapt to high-speed. Is it time for a new rail revolution? (P36) www.euinfrastructure.com • Q3 2009

Will crumbling infrastructure and funding shortfalls team up to deflate Poland and Ukraine’s Euro 2012 dreams? (P30)

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ED NOTE EUI8:jun09 20/07/2009 10:01 Page 3

Editor’s note 3

All together now Why building better connections could revolutionise Europe’s infrastructure future

I

’m sure I’m not the only person who emits an audible sigh of displeasure when a TV advert, most often for a mobile phone network, starts banging on about how great it is to be ‘connected’. Backed by an irritatingly cute soundtrack, these ads tend to feature gangs of impossibly good-looking people having their already wonderful lives improved immeasurably by their ability to stay in uninterrupted contact with one another. Living in the age of the social network and the omnipresent mobile phone, being connected is presented as aspirational. Curmudgeon that I am, I find it all quite nauseating.

Regardless of my personal antipathy, the concept of connectedness could be key to the next leap forward in European infrastructure development. Building better networks has the potential to safeguard both our environmental and economic future. High-speed rail lines are flourishing across much of the continent. As these networks improve, the train is becoming a truly viable alternative to short haul flights. The open-

“Hosting the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships in Ukraine and Poland is stimulating investment in infrastructure and supports Ukraine’s continued economic development.”

Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyrya (page 30)

ing of the Madrid to Barcelona line allows travel between the two cities in under three hours. The train is taking an increasing share of passenger numbers on the route, as travellers opt to avoid the many onerous features of air transit for a comfortable service that deposits them in the heart of their destination city.

There is no reason why such services should be constrained by national borders.

There are already international connections on certain high-speed routes, so a future where people are able to travel the length of the continent by fast train isn’t so outlandish.

In energy too, making new connections could be of tremendous benefit. The huge drive towards renewable sources of power presents opportunities as well as challenges. To exploit Europe’s massive capacity for offshore and onshore wind power, new transmission infrastructure will have to be built. If we are starting from scratch anyway, why not think ahead and construct a truly panEuropean network? Tackling such a project in a

“High-speed rail is – or is becoming – a key driver of modernisation – economic, environmental and social; it is not simply a better, faster means of transport.” UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis (page 36)

concerted way could help resolve the reliability issues that can dog renewable energy. The wind will always be blowing somewhere, so it makes sense to be able to funnel energy from the source to where it is most needed.

But to make this work will require a far more concerted approach than we have seen previously. Governments and planners will need to cast off their tribal tendencies and embrace a common future. These are exactly the kind of projects that the European Union was designed to facilitate, but which have traditionally been far too slow to get moving. Things need to change and we need to start working together.

Forget the TV ads – that’s the kind of connectedness I could really get behind. n

Huw Thomas, Editor

“Wind energy is the most dynamic industry all over the world. Even in this very tricky period it is still growing.”

Christian Egal, CEO, EDF Energy Renewables (page 86)

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Contents 4

36

30 The final countdown With only three years until the UEFA European Championships, Poland and Ukraine’s infrastructure remains in a parlous state. EU Infrastructure investigates if the finals are going to be a spectacular own goal, or whether the two countries can pull off a late winner.

Biting the bullet It’s time to put high-speed trains on the fast track, says UK Secretary of State for Transport Lord Andrew Adonis

Regeneration X Matt Buttell looks at how urban renewel schemes are affecting Europe and rounds up some of the biggest projects of the last few decades

86 A new dawn Christian Egal, CEO of EDF Energy Renewables, tells Huw Thomas that the forecast for wind energy is extremely good

42

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66

Eskil Sellgren

72

Frank Walenberg

48 Capital investment Graeme Craig of Transport for London explains the impact of the city’s congestion charging scheme

54 Route planning The European road system requires greater cooperation, increased innovation and more investment if it is to respond to 21st century challenges

56 Paving the way Mike Acott examines how breakthrough technologies in asphalt could help lower greenhouse gas emissions

56

Paving the way

ASK THE EXPERT 46 Per Fredrik Ecker, Q-Free ASA 52 Zoltán Pap, Intertoll Europe 66 Eskil Sellgren, WSP 72 Frank Walenberg, KEMA Rail Transport Certification 82 Leif Lindh, Combibox

Stig Enemark explains the importance of suitable infrastructure and sustainable land administration

are responding to economic and environmental pressures

80 Improving the industry Roberto Kobeh González of the Civil Aviation Authority outlines the industry’s major issues

94 Wind power works Christian Kjaer asks whether EU wind power will reach the tough renewable targets set for 2020

100 Breaking new ground Demand for greater collaboration and exchange of information is leading to some significant construction industry shifts

68 Up to speed 62 Linking technology to land management

ROUNDTABLE 118 Paints and coatings

Railways created a transport revolution in the 19th Century. As trains and lines get faster and more sophisticated, are we on the verge of a new leap forward?

76 In the hot seat ACI EUROPE’s Robert O’Meara on how airports

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW 74 Daniël Eijgendaal, Deerns 106 Klaus Meissner, Terex Cranes 116 Michael Bertilsson, Sectra

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CONTENTS 9

IN THE BACK

State of emergency

112

Situation critical

76 122 Situation critical 126 In review 126 Photo finish

102 Time to build As an academic, Ron McCaffer’s role as Chairman of the ECI is bucking the trend in more ways than one

108 A standard process

100

Li Shirong

In the hot seat Paints and coatings

Phil Kidner fills us in on the background of the TETRA standard and recent advancements in the communications space

112 State of emergency The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials’ Bob Smith explains the technological and human challenges facing emergency responders

INDUSTRY INSIGHT 60 Steve Harris, Nynas Bitumen 84 Jorn Rod-Larsen, Ricochet 92 Ricardo Moro, GES 98 Eric Thorman, Power Climber

118

Park Hotel, Bremen, Germany 15 - 17 September 2009

Chairman/Publisher SPENCER GREEN Director of Projects ADAM BURNS Editorial Director HARLAN DAVIS Worldwide Sales Director OLIVER SMART

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Editor HUW THOMAS Managing Editor BEN THOMPSON Associate Editor MATTHEW BUTTELL Deputy Editors NATALIE BRANDWEINER, REBECCA GOOZEE, DIANA MILNE, JULIAN ROGERS, MARIE SHIELDS, STACEY SHEPPARD

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Upfront LEAD FEATURE

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RUNNING THE RISK

As the recession forces the UK government to make cuts in public spending, fears arise for the future of the London Olympics

THE LONDON OLYMPICS are once operation and Development again under threat follow(OECD) that the best way ing recent government for the UK to tackle its LOCOG has so discussions over record deficits was far raised over possible cuts in through spending public spending. cuts rather than by which is 70 percent Heated discusraising taxes. of the budget they sions came about The recession set themselves following recommenand fears over public dations in June from the spending cuts have cast a Organisation for Economic Cohuge shadow over future expendi-

â‚Ź0.5 billion

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Upfront

LEAD FEATURE ture and progress of the infraHe praised the delivery of structure projects for the Games. the infrastructure and the staThese worries prompted diums and confirmed that Lord Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London would have still bid for London Organising Committee the Games had they been of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) aware that an economic crisis to speak out in an attempt to was on the horizon. quell any misgivings.

These are not the only Coe is adamant expendiproblems that London 2012 has ture on the Games will not be faced recently. Back in June reduced and is confident that forensic accountants were 2012 is in good financial health brought in to investigate irregdespite the tough economic ularities after a €116 million conditions. Speaking to The deficit was identified in the Guardian Coe said the budget Olympic accounts. for the infrastructure is The investigation foset and is resilient. cused on the Olympic He affirmed that Legacy Directorate Coe the budget for and found that is adamant staging has there had been a nothing to do failure to make on the Games will with public provisions for benot be reduced spending and tween €70 million every penny raised and €116 million to has come from the pricompensate those busivate sector. nesses which had been forced The fact that all the partto relocate from the Olympic ners and sponsors are already site in Stratford, East London. in place means that there is This oversight leaves the likely to be very little impact on agency with a cashflow probthe Games, explained Coe. lem that could cause infrastrucLOCOG has so far raised ture projects to be delayed or over half a billion euros cancelled. which is 70 percent of the A spokesman for the budget they set themselves London Development Agency three years ago and allegedly admitted that there had been more than any other host city some “additional spending has raised. commitments” but that the Coe also emphasised that shortfall could be made up preparations are going very well from savings elsewhere, hence and that the construction work the worries over future infrais actually ahead of schedule. structure projects.

This view was also echoed by This shortfall will not only Former Prime Minister Tony affect the future of the Blair earlier in July.

Olympics, it also has the potenBlair dismissed suggestial to affect developments tions that the economic climate across London. More than €23 had turned the Games into a million a year will allegedly luxury that London could do need to be cut from the London without and said that the orbudget over the next three ganisers had done an “incrediyears to cover the irregularities ble job”. in the 2012 Olympics accounts.

13

NEWS IN PICTURES

London has been voted 8th in a 2009 City Infrastructure Ranking conducted by management consultancy Mercer. The UK capital came behind Munich, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt in the rankings and the number one spot was awarded to Singapore

expenditure

In his white paper energy secretary Ed Miliband has announced his plans for how the UK would meet its legally binding targets to cut emissions by 34 percent by 2020. He said 40 percent of electricity would come from low carbon sources including renewables, nuclear and clean coal by the end of the next decade

Madrid is one of the final four cities to have been shortlisted to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Facing stiff competition from Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro, Madrid is hoping to be selected when the secret ballot takes place in October this year. Above, Rafael Nadal of Spain competes against Potito Staracein the 2008 Beijing Olympics

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Upfront INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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GOING GREEN

DEVELOPING FUNDS

FORGING AHEAD

SUSTAINABILITY AND ENERGY efficiency are still hot topics and given the current economic climate it is difficult to ignore the possible cost savings on offer.

However, many people are put off by the initial cost of incorporating green building techniques and the lengthy time frame before payback.

IN AN ATTEMPT TO ENSURE that infrastructure projects in developing countries do not come to a standstill during the economic crisis the World Bank has launched two new funds worth an expected $55 billion (€39bn) over the next three years. “As developing countries are facing the trials of the global economic crisis, it is vitally important that economic stimulus packages in the developed world are accompanied by support to those that cannot afford multi-billion bailouts,” said World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

DUBAI APPEARS to be attempting to block the global economic crisis as infrastructure projects worth billons continue to forge ahead. At the start of the year, the Dubai government announced that its infrastructure spending for 2009 would be increased by 42 percent. According to the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) three major road projects worth Dh2.9 (€0.5bn) billion have been approved by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, VicePresident and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The Cascadia Green Building Council conducted the Living Building Financial Study in order to gauge whether green buildings are actually affordable. The results were released at their annual event, the Living Future Conference, which was held in Portland, Oregon in May this year.

Thirty-six different buildings across four different climate zones were analysed according to the anticipated costs involved in the Living Building Challenge. The outcome of the study indicates that going green is expensive, but that the cost is significantly smaller than originally anticipated.

Jason McLennan, CEO of Cascadia and the author of the Living Building Challenge said: “It’s time we rethink how we build – and this study should open eyes about what is possible.”

France and Germany will be contributing. “Infrastructure and the financing of infrastructure is absolutely critical,” said French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde at the signing ceremony for the funds.

Al Wasl Road, Al Khail Road and Umm Suqeim Road are all due to be upgraded and the passenger capacity of Dubai’s two airports will be increased from 190 million to 240 million.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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PIPE DREAMS

DOWN UNDER

TUNNEL VISION

A €8.1 BILLION DEAL has been signed to build a 2000 mile gas pipeline, which will help Europe reduce its dependency on Russia.

Currently a quarter of all natural gas used in Europe comes from Russia, with several southern European countries depending almost exclusively on Russian supplies.

SYDNEY IS MAKING an important step towards achieving a clear future for its mass transit network.

Design work on the first stage of the Sydney Metro network is underway and construction is scheduled to begin in 2010 to enable the metro to be opened to the public in 2015. Tendering for the project has now taken place and five major bidders have registered their interest.

PRECONSTRUCTION WORKon the Vic Park Tunnel project in Auckland, New Zealand is scheduled to start in August with actual construction work set to begin in November. The project is estimated to cost €185 million and includes the construction of a 440m tunnel beneath Victoria Park that will carry three lanes of north-bound traffic and expansion of the current viaduct to four lanes southbound.

Transport Minister David Campbell announced that over €329 million was being spent on the Sydney Metro in the 2009/10 NSW State Budget. This infrastructure project will create 12,500 direct and indirect jobs in the construction industry according to Campbell.

It also includes the expansion of St Mary’s Bay to five lanes in each direction, a new southbound bus shoulder lane and provision of northbound bus priority. The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has selected a consortium to carry out the work as part of its Central Motorway Junction (CMJ) improvements. The consortium includes Fletcher Construction, Beca Engineering, Higgins Contractors and Australian consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff.

The Nabucco pipeline project is due to become operational in 2014 with an estimated capacity to pump 31 billion cubic metres of gas from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signed the deal in Ankara along with his counterparts from Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, through which pipeline will pass. The Nabucco project aims to avoid the possibility of more cutoffs, which recently disrupted supplies to Europe amid freezing temperatures.

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Upfront COMPANY NEWS

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FLYING START FOR POLAND

TEN POLISH AIRPORTS are to receive approximately €0.5 billion worth of aid granted by the national, regional and local authorities. The support measures are for the existing small regional airports near Poznán, Rzeszów, Krakow, ód and Bydgoszcz, and for future airports to serve Lublin, Modlin, the Podlasie region, OlsztynSzymany and Zegrze Pomorskie. The aid will be used to help with the construction of new terminal buildings and more modern runways and is available in the form of subsidies, transfers of land and equipment, or injections of capital. Small regional airports will benefit from full subsidies, whilst those medium-sized airports such as Pozna and Krakow can claim up to 76 percent of the costs. The measures will be co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund to the tune of around €192 million.

A NEED FOR ITS SLOVENIA IS INCREASING its position as one of Iskra Sistemi and its partner won the contract the countries best equipped with ITS compared in December 2008. The project completion date is to other European countries with advanced end of June 2009, to be extended somewhat due to transport solutions. In fact, one of the largest ITS the project design modifications and subsequent projects in Slovenian history is nearing comple- supplements. Apart from project design modification. A new regional centre for traffic control and tions, its implementation is extremely demanding – supervision on motorways and regional roads, also on account of the movement of systems in the investment consists of three parts, phases as the safety of motorway traffic and in terms of ITS, the last part is depends primarily on the operation of One of the the most important: the moveindividual systems. For the reasons ment of the communication hub of safety, some of the systems, from the existing to the new resuch as SCADA, emergency call ITS projects in Slovenian history gional centre Ljubljana, with the systems and video surveillance is nearing new control centre being built in will be duplicated for a while, and completion Dragomelj near Ljubljana. will simultaneously operate in the old Supervision and control systems for and new centre. Personnel, permanently the entvid tunnel, Golovec tunnel and six other operating these intelligent transport systems, will smaller tunnels, the emergency call systems cov- move together with the systems. ering a total length of over 200km, 64 video surSlovenia is not large in size, but this investveillance cameras with subsequent upgrading, ment is important for its strategic position as radio equipment, LAN and SDH communication major European transport routes cross its territoequipment, telephony and traffic information cen- ry. As transit through this country keeps increastre are being moved to the new centre, where a ing from year to year, and with traffic volume new video wall and integrated SCADA system is growing, ITS systems are needed to contribute to being installed to enable supervision over all the the necessary safety. Iskra Sistemi, with its 60systems in the control centre. In addition to intelli- year tradition in road traffic solutions, contributes gent systems, the necessary cable infrastructure a significant share.

For more information please visit www.iskrasistemi.si is also being upgraded.

largest

CONFIGURING IT OUT TETRA NETWORK USER ORGANISATIONS often have differing dispatching structures and different data-applications, factors that need to be taken into account when radio profiles are being planned. As a rule, the radio configuration can be frozen and only when new features are added is there a need to make changes to it. However, some organisations need to frequently change their internal work processes and structure as a natural part of what they do and this can lead to a situation where it is just about impossible to make a fleet map containing all current and future needs.

A solution to this problem is Mentura’s ROCS (Role Oriented Communications Server), which uses dynamic grouping and virtual numbering to give an organisation the freedom to change its structure at any time, reduce cost of PMR and improve efficiency of operations.

When ROCS is employed, a subscriber can use any radio from the organisation’s pool of radios. The radio will dynamically receive the user’s personal number, task related numbers and talk groups based on both the tasks he is assigned to and his role. As radios are shared, the organisation can optimise the investment to radios (no role specific radios needed). Therefore, it is no longer necessary to know the specific identity or name of person on a job – the call is made based on a functional number and the alias identity.

Each process can also be assigned to a dynamic talk group, and all personnel assigned to the process are automatically added to that group, thereby allowing authorised users to request to join a process’s talk group, or send information to the team easily.

For more information please visit: www.menturagroup.com

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Upfront 18 JOHN STANION, The Chairman and Chief Executive of VINCI PLC, the world’s largest construction firm, offers insight to the key principles behind the company success.

MAJOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTSare exciting if you like construction, but when you see some of the projects that we undertake – the Vasco de Gama bridge, for example, or the bridge we built recently in Normandy – there is a certain thrill in doing them. In terms of the backlog, it’s the highest it’s ever been. The reason for that I suppose is that we are a business of choice for customers. They’ll come to us because we are a benchmark for major project capabilities across the world.

Some of the most recent developments that we’ve been selected to design and construct include the world’s longest causeway between Qatar and Bahrain, which represents 27 miles of road over water, the longest stretch in the world. Elsewhere in the Middle East, we’re also involved in the building of dams – the Naga Hammadi dam in Egypt and the Wadi Dayqah dam in the Sultanate of Oman. In Russia we’re working on the containment structure at Chernobyl; we have carried out some of the original building of the sarcophagus, and now we’re building the complete shelter that will contain the damaged reactor over the long-term. We’re also laying the foundations for the Russia Tower in Moscow, planned to be the third-tallest building in the world.

We also take the whole issue of sharing best practices, sharing information and networking very seriously. We are a diversified group that carves out its business through a huge range of subsidiaries. It’s obviously important that you can pass information around and innovate effectively, and also that you communicate those ideas internally. We recently set up an innovation programme where the best ideas are brought forward every two years and highlighted at a big public ceremony and put forward for an innovation prize, to help encourage this kind of knowledge transfer.

The construction industry is all about human resources and it’s the most important component of the business. Vinci consists of 158,000 employees, and in 2008 we recruited 17,000 new ones. We’re one of the largest employers in the world, so you can imagine the HR challenges that come with recruiting 17,000 new employees in a year. Nonetheless, human resources and developing people is the key to our success.

We’ve always been a construction firm, and ‘construction’ is a term that covers numerous different areas – it can mean engineering, it can mean building, it can mean civil engineering. We’re involved in everything. We put up buildings, we construct bridges, we lay out transmission systems, we build utilities, pipelines, and so on. We do it all.

IN MY VIEW

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Upfront COMPANY NEWS

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WONDROUS TECHNOLOGY? WONROS (Wear Out and Noise the field of noise can result also in Reduction on Source) technolo- civil action for damages against gy deals with the use of the so the railway companies. called HFC (Heavily Fluid With the development of Composite) compounds and ap- WONROS technology, remedy of plicators, to create devices for considerable noise production, distribution for HFC materials, caused by interaction between intended for reduction of wear the rail and the wheels especialand tear and noise production ly on rail curves, is possible. of machinery operating, partic- Noise generated by friction beularly on rails, under extween the wheel and treme conditions. the rail is the result By On the one of torsion friction, reducing the side, serious which causes competition heavy wear and among tear. It is thus a the wear decreases providers of sersimple conclusimultaneously vices and aggression that by resive marketing of ducing the noise, them, and on the other, the wear decreases sirequirements for efficient action multaneously. Furthermore, this in accordance with all regulations means that by remedy of noise and investment possibilities, issues, the legislature is adplace infrastructure managers in hered to and relatively high savan unenviable position. Due to ings in terms of costs of high ecologic and economic stan- maintenance (significantly dedards, the railway infrastructure creased LCC of rails) are also managements also face dilem- achieved. Return on the applicamas of which measures to adopt tion investment, supported by in certain situations, where WONROS technology, is expectbreach of European legislature in ed within a year or two.

noise

HOT STUFF AS INTERCONTINENTAL high-speed trains begin to compete with air traffic in moving people and cargo, safety and reliability are keywords.

High-speed trains need long switchpoints to maintain speed and maximise efficiency.

In 1998 a group of railway companies and suppliers in Europe initiated a cooperation to reduce power consumption and improve materials and methods of switchpoint heating.

Switchpoint Heating AB has been a part of this group since the beginning and this has contributed to several new products made to ensure smooth traffic in any weather.

Combining functionality with sufficient power fixed where it’s most useful is the optimal way of providing protection against ice and snow.

Switchpoint Heating AB’s system is based at self-limiting, constant wattage flexible elements up to 25 metres in

length with a power up to 360W/m rail with only one feeding point.

Double insulated elements without braiding and covered with one metre long stainless steel profiles are fitted to the rail with spring steel clips. This gives a reliable application with good heat transfer and insurance against signal errors and electrical shock. Combined with switchgear rod heaters connected at stock-rail elements end, Switchpoint Heating AB’s systems are a flexible product which are easy to design and use.

The system has a four-way power distributor with quick connectors at leads connecting heating elements moulded in neoprene rubber for water proof easy installation and service. Combined with Origo Megapoint computer controlled power distribution, heating can be maintained and supervised from remote locations.

For more information see www.switchpointheating.se

To find out more please visit www.wonros.eu or www.elpa.si

SOLAR LACKS POWER

HFC Rail Applicators type CL-E1ws

MAKERS OF SOLAR POWER CELLS will suffer this year according to analysts at two big banks. This is bad news for investors who are expected to learn that solar companies have not done as well as expected when profits are announced. It is likely that forecasts for the rest of the year will be lowered as a result.

Declining prices for photovoltaic systems has been blamed

on fierce competition for customers during the economic crisis and the lack of financing available for new projects.

In a recent report Steve O’Rourke, a solar analyst at Deutsche Bank wrote that the lower prices have led to customers delaying purchases in the hope that they can benefit from further reductions in the coming months.

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Upfront COMPANY NEWS

SMOOTH SAILING

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EARLIER THIS YEAR the EU Commission presented plans to move towards a maritime space without barriers.

By streamlining customs procedures for ships travelling from one EU port to another it is hoped that lengthy delays and increased costs can be avoided.

Unlike road and rail transport, shipping from one EU country to another is considered international trade because a country’s territorial waters only extend 22 kilometres from shore. Beyond that distance, a ship enters international waters.

Transport Minister Antonio Tajani believes the plan will make maritime transport more competitive, in turn benefiting the overall economy. An important source of jobs and revenue for Europe, ships carry about 40 percent of the EU’s internal trade and almost all external trade.

FAST FACT

40% of all the wind energy in Europe blows over the UK, making it an ideal country for small domestic turbines

MAKING THE MOST OF INFRASTRUCTURE EUROPE’S ROADS AND SKIES are becoming increasingly saturated as the population becomes more mobile. Policymakers are expected to appease the situation by building new road and rail infrastructure to cope with the increasing congestion.

However, stakeholders have argued that this course of action alone is not the solution and better use and management of our existing infrastructure should be a major priority.

Sylvain Haon, rapporteur on the urban transport workshop underlines the fact that particularly in urban areas there is a limited amount of space available for transport and simply building new infrastructure is not always an option.

The lack of congestion of previous years has meant that thoughts on sharing infrastructure have not really been a priority, as underlined by Marco Sorgetti, rapporteur on the freight transport workshop.

Sorgetti has called for rules to be defined on “who has

INSPECTION COMPLEXITY TRAFFIC CONTROL is one of the most current issues in the infrastructure industry. Two important subjects in this industry are rail inspection and license plate recognition. The current developments in rail inspection outline the complexity of these subjects. Dutch Railways still inspects its rails manually, and while this method might sound outdated, it is still the most reliable. There’s only one reason: the alternative. Automatic Camera Inspection is extremely complex. Only the most experienced and technically grounded lighting professionals are able to develop a system that equals the quality of manual inspection.

Vision Light Tech (VLT) is currently working on the most complex part of the camera inspection system: the illumination. A constant amount of light is required for automatic inspection. It should (preferably) resemble the natural light on a sunny day. Illumination does not revolve around light on its own. It also encompasses the use of filters and lenses. Only an optimised combination of these

priority over who and under what circumstances” regarding the use of infrastructure and Antonio Preto, Head of Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani’s cabinet, believes that the issues of ageing and behavioural change, transport energy sources and environmental pollution also need to be addressed.

Better transport links to countries neighbouring the EU were also called for by Trevor Garrod, the rapporteur on the passenger transport session.

three elements enables a high and constant light quality, which is necessary to reach similar or even better results.

The challenge for VLT is to achieve a high as possible contrast. The higher the contrast, the clearer the image. For example, with license plate recognition, there are several organisations with various reasons for checking out vehicles. The government does not just check speed, but is also interested in country of origin, truck loads and other information that can be traced by codes on vehicles. Naturally these codes and license plates come in all sorts of colours and shapes.

Recognition is also hampered by influences such as speed, weather conditions and pollution; moreover it is not in the driver’s best interest to distract him with sudden light flashes, and because of all these issues the control devices require a certain invisibility. There are many factors that need to be considered. VLT’s key focus is to offer an optimised combination of light, lens and filter offering the highest contrast for every situation imaginable.

For more information please visit www.visionlighttech.com

VLT.indd 1

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Upfront COMPANY NEWS

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SAFETY FIRST

TOP 10

IN 2007, there were 2566 persons killed or seriously injured in railway accidents in the EU-27, which is comparable to the 2006 value and represents an estimated 19.7 percent decrease compared to 2005. Countries with the most railway accidents in 2007: NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS COUNTRY (% OF TOTAL)

1 2 3 4 5

6

7 8 9 10

Poland

944 (31.2%)

Germany

489 (16.1%)

France

413 (13.6%)

Romania

283 (9.3%)

Slovakia

270 (8.9%)

Hungary

154 (5.1%)

Italy

133 (4.4%)

FIRE-RELATED RISKS are beginning to raise concerns within the industry, as the number of installed wind turbines around the world increases. DNV now investigates fire safety related problems through the identification of firerelated risks in wind turbines.

“The main reasons for the occurrence of fires are failures in the transformer, a component failure in the electrical system or in the brake system,” says Lars Schiøtt Sørensen, Senior Engineer with DNV. “DNV can help producers as well as contractual clients in the wind energy area to cover such risks.”

As number and size of offshore wind farms increase, it is also necessary to focus on fire safety aspects in transformer stations installed in conjunction to the wind farms (figure A).

In transformer stations, the fire risks can be related to overheating of hydraulic systems, failure in light arch protection systems and heat generation from coil effects in a bunch of cables to name but a few.

DNV has initiated a Joint Industry Project (JIP) to address Safety Requirements for Offshore Transformer and Accommodation platforms. The standard includes a chapter about Fire and Explosion Protection requirements in order to mitigate the fire risk level. The DNV

BRIDGING THE GAP Spain

123 (4.1%)

Czech Republic 1152 (3.8%) UK

107 (3.5%)

A NEW BILL that has been passed by the Danish Parliament will allow the construction of a bridge over the Fehmarn Belt between Denmark and Germany.

An overwhelming majority voted for the bridge, which is expected to be built with two

(a) Type A (1)

(b) Type B

(c) Type C Type A (2)

offshore standard is expected to be published by end of 2009.

Two types of accommodation platforms are described in the standard: platforms shared by power equipment and accommodation space (see figure B); platforms with separate power equipment and accommodation platforms, connected by a bridge (figure C).

railway tracks and a four-lane motorway, taking motorists approximately 12-15 minutes to cross.

Construction is expected to commence in 2012 and to be finished in 2018 at a total cost of €4.43 billion.

At 20 kilometres, it will be Denmark’s longest bridge over

Both types of platforms can be designed for temporary as well as permanent accommodation.

Therefore, it is of great importance to deal with fire safety aspects. The relatively high number of risks, in combination with the presence of people and a long distance to the shore further indicate the need for assessment on safe areas, temporary refuges and evacuation.

water and will replace the current hour-long ferry crossings that link Denmark and Germany.

Transport Minister Lars Barfoed said the vote is “an historic decision that will connect the Nordic region – and thus Denmark – with the rest of the European continent.”

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Upfront COMPANY NEWS

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A GLOBAL SERVICE Net Technologies,who specialise in telecommunication, mobile and wireless networks as well as mobile applications, has renewed the service product portfolio in TETRA services. The new TETRA services include radio planning also in prebid stages, managed services, as well as the already familiar services such as radio planning, network design, roll out management, NOC, training, turn-key-solution and operations and maintenance services.

In this fast evolving environment, new TETRA network deployments should consider two main factors: cost of deployment and network efficiency that will provide solutions to all requirements set by the potential users. In order to achieve the optimum tradeoff between these two struggling aspects, the initial Radio (RF) Planning,

a process that assists preserving an efficient cost control during the lifetime of a TETRA network project, from planning phase to actual network deployment, should be carried out. “Our driving force in renewing our service portfolio has been our customers needs,” states Dimitris Androutsopoulos, CEO of Net Technologies. “As the TETRA field keeps evolving, our customers are faced with harder economical situation combined with deployment cost.”

The markets have clearly chosen TETRA as the preferred communications technology in several industry sectors worldwide. The reasons are simple: deployment cost is approximately the same component-wise, with great advantages of TETRA compared to analogue systems in terms of economies of scale, competition, and life cycle cost. To the markets, TETRA technology seems to be the solution to longstanding problems in security, availability and quality.

For more information go to www.nettechn.com

FAST FACT The G8 countries have committed to limiting global warming to 2°C and reducing their greenhouse gas emissions

80% by 2050 Source: European Commission

HOT OFF THE PRESS In June we launched the first issue of our sister title US Infrastructure. In it we looked at PRESIDENT OBAMA’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which promises a major boost to infrastructure funding.

We also explored the decline of American infrastructure from collapsed bridges to leaking dams.

To read more of the stories from this issue, head to www.americainfra.com

RENEWABLE ENERGY GETS SECOND WIND TWO HUGE OFFSHORE WIND FARM to whether or not to go ahead with PROJECTS in the UK which had been its Lincolnshire project by the end shelved due to the credit crunch, weak of September. If it does become repound and high construcality the farm could genertion costs could finally ate enough energy to The go ahead following a power two cities the two projects government ansize of Cambridge. will cost nouncement in RWE npower April that further will also decide subsidies would be whether to build made available. its €2.6 billion proin total The two farms will ject in North Wales, have an estimated build which, if built, will be one cost of €3.5 billion, but are vital to the of the largest projects in the world.

UK’s efforts to meet the 2020 renew- The company is almost certain to able targets. build the project now that subsiCentrica will make a decision as dies have been boosted.

€6.1 billion

NET TECH AD.indd 1

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FUNDAMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS

DON’T MISS...

42 REGENERATION X Matt Buttell looks at how urban renewal schemes are affecting Europe

48 CAPITAL INVESTMENT Graeme Craig of Transport for London explains the impact of the city’s congestion charging scheme

94 WIND POWER WORKS Christian Kjaer asks whether EU wind power will reach the tough renewable targets

CURRENTLY THE BIGGESTinfrastructure financing operation in all of Europe, the construction of the Capital Airport Berlin Brandenburg International BBI had a huge boost in June as Berlin Airports finalised loan contracts with eight banks.

The biggest investment is to come from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which will be granting ¤1bn of the total €2.4bn amount.

The Berlin-Brandenburg region formerly had three airports: Schönefeld, Tegel and Templehof.

The location of both Tegel and Templehof meant that expansion was not an option, leaving Schönefeld as the front-runner.

In the course of expansion into BBI, Schönefeld Airport will be extended by an area measuring 970 hectares. In total, the new airport will cover the equivalent of 2000 football pitches.

The expansion has also necessitated the relocation of two separate villages. The relocation of Diepensee was completed in December 2004, and the partial relocation of Selchow was successfully carried out in July 2005.

Tempelhof Airport was closed on 30 October 2008. This will be followed in 2011 by the closure of Tegel Airport when all air traffic will flow through the new

Capital Airport Berlin Brandenburg International BBI. Matthias Platzeck, Prime Minister of the State of Brandenburg believes that the BBI represents a unique chance to integrate Berlin and Brandenburg in the global air traffic streams of the globalised economy.

Prof. Dr. Rainer Schwarz, Chief Executive Officer of Berlin Airports said: “The BBI project has really gained momentum this year. Our goals are ambitious, but by 2011 the Berlin and Brandenburg region will have a high-performance, worldclass airport which will enable us to position Berlin up there amongst the top 10 leading aviation locations in Europe.”

COMPANY INDEX Q3 2009 Companies in this issue are indexed to the first page of the article in which each is mentioned.

Airport Consulting Vienna 8 Association of Public Safety Communications Officials 112 BAA 102 BOMAG 35 Catus Automation IBC Chartered Institute of Building 100 Cleartone 108 Combibox IFC, 82 Cummins 71 Danvest Energy 91 Decauteur Electronics 65 Deerns 74, 75 DNV 24, 25 EADS 108 ECI 102 EDF Energy Renewables 86 Ekahau 115 Elpa 20, 67 European Wind Energy Association 94 Global Energy Services 92, 93

Hoffman Mineral 118, 121 Intertoll Europe 52, 53 Iskra Sistemi 16, 17 Kema Rail Transport Certification 72, 73 Mentura Group Ltd 16, 111 Motorola 108 Moxa 80 MSA 19 NACO 78 National Asphalt Pavement Association 56 Net Technologies 26, 27 Nynas 60, 61 Optelecom-NFK, Inc. 63 Power Climber 98, 99 Q-Free 46, 47 Ricochet 11, 84 Sectra 116, 117 Selex 108 Sepura 108 Simtra 58

Speedar 55 SwitchPoint Heating 20, 21 Terex-Cranes 106, 107 TETRA Association 108 Total 102 Transport for London 48 Transoft Solutions 2, 51 Tikkurila 5, 7, 118 Verderflex 127 Verint 125 Vision Light Technology 22, 23 WSP Group 66, OBC

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Upfront

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INVESTMENT PROJECTS FOR EURO 2012 IN POLAND

TOP 10

THE AGGREGATE VALUEof construction investments in transport, sports, hotel and telecommunications infrastructure and facilities related to the organisation of Euro 2012 in Poland is estimated at almost PLN 95bn (€21bn)

3% 2% Air transport

Telecommunications

4% Hotels

52% Road transport

7% Stadiums and training centres

HIGHEST CAR OWNERSHIP Number of cars per 1000 population

1 32% Rail transport

Total: PLN 94,7bn

Source: Euro 2012 in Poland and Urkraine, Construction Investments. PMR Publications, a division of PMR, 2009

MAKING NUCLEAR SAFE IN JUNE THIS YEAR the Council of the European Union adopted the Nuclear Safety Directive, which is a major step towards achieving a common legal framework and a strong safety culture in Europe.

This makes the EU the first major regional nuclear actor to provide binding legal force to the main international nuclear safety standards, namely the Safety Fundamentals established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the obligations resulting from the Convention on Nuclear Safety.

“Nuclear safety is an absolute priority for the EU,” said Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

“This Nuclear Safety Directive brings legal certainty by clarifying responsibilities and provides increased guarantees to the public as required by EU citizens. It sets binding principles for enhancing nuclear safety to protect workers and the general public, as well as the environment. Continuous development of nuclear safety is a responsibility not just for Europe, but for the world; not simply for

us but also for coming generations.”

An enlarged EU will undoubtedly require a common approach to guarantee the highest level of nuclear safety, especially considering that the EU has the largest number of nuclear power plants in the world.

Many of the member states are planning investments or life extensions of nuclear power plants in order to meet the growing electricity demand, improve security of supply and tackle climate change.

The Directive requires member states to set up and continuously improve national nuclear safety frameworks. It also enhances the role and independence of national regulatory authorities, confirming license holders the prime responsibility for nuclear safety. Member states are required to encourage a high level of transparency of regulatory actions and to guarantee regular independent safety assessments.

With the adoption of this Directive Europe could become a real model for the rest of the world in a context of renewed interest in nuclear energy.

2 3 4 5

6

7 8 9 10

Luxembourg

647

Iceland

632

New Zealand

607

Italy

595

Canada

561

Cyprus

550

Germany

550

Australia

542

Malta

523

Switzerland

520 Source: CDC

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COVER STORY

With only three years until they host the UEFA European Championships in 2012, the infrastructure of Poland and Ukraine remain in a parlous state. Will the finals be a spectacular own goal, or can the two countries can pull off a late winner? By Huw Thomas pril 19 2007 was a big day for the people of Ukraine and Poland. When the news came in that the countries’ joint bid to host the 2012 UEFA European Cup had been successful, there was wild rejoicing on the streets of Krakow and Lviv. That these nations, often uncharitably viewed as poor relations of their neighbours further west, had beaten four-time World Cup winners Italy in the competition only made the victory sweeter.

Not since the fall of communism will there have been so much attention focused on these countries. For a month in 2012 thousands of football fans will flock to the east of Europe, while further millions will be glued to their television sets across the world. Running a successful European Championship can really put a place on the map.

Quite aside from the kudos generated by playing host to Euro 2012, there will be significant material advantages. Hundreds of thousands of fans will flow into the two countries over the course of the competition, spending mountains of cash in hotels, restaurants and shops. But there are more than just the weeks spanned by the championship to consider. How Ukraine and Poland handle themselves will have a long-term impact on each country’s future. A good performance in the summer of 2012 could see tourists returning year after year and even help attract investment and new business. “Hosting the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships in Ukraine and Poland is stimulating investment in infrastructure and supports Ukraine's continued economic development,” said Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister Hryhoriy Nemyrya of the announcement. “It will be a showcase for our cities, culture and hospitality, as well as the best football talent in Europe and it will provide a legacy that will endure long after the tournament is over.”

But ensuring this legacy will require some very hard work. After decades of underinvestment, the infrastructure needed to support such a huge event was in no shape to deal with the challenges associated with hosting such a competition. This was certainly true in 2007 when the Championships were awarded. Now, two years later, concerns remain that the countries remain ill-prepared. Suddenly, 2012 doesn’t seem that far away.

Of the two nations, Ukraine is raising the biggest concerns about its readiness.

Earlier in the year UEFA President Michel Platini announced the host cities for the competition. While the Polish cities Warsaw, Gdánsk, Wroclaw and Poznán have all been passed fit, only Kiev has been confirmed in Ukraine. The country now has until November to sharpen up its preparations or it risks its status as co-host.

While the stadiums where the games are played are generally seen as the centrepoint of international sporting events like the European Championships, in reality they are only a small part of the total package. According to research

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Poland Population Area s Paved highway Railways Airports

38 million 304,459 sq km 249,050 km 23,072 km 123

from analysts PMR, stadiums only comprise six percent of the almost €40 billion that Poland and Ukraine will spend on preparation for the competition. Forty-five percent will be spent on roads, 33 percent on rail, 11 percent on hotels and accommodation, with the final five percent going on airports.

This huge amount of money clearly reflects the infrastructure deficiencies in both countries and the sheer amount of work that must be completed in the remaining years before the competition. Given that travelling between just the four Ukrainian host cities will entail journeys of anything between 600km and 1200km, and the distance between stadiums across the two countries can be more than 1500km, a robust transport infrastructure will be essential. Unfortunately for Ukraine, with an area almost twice the size of its co-host, its transportation system is in a very poor state of repair. Many roads are unpaved and even the more modern routes are potholed and outdated. Rail and airport infrastructure too has a long way to go before it will be in a position to cope with the thousands of football fans set to converge on the country in 2012.

In response to these pressing needs, Ukraine has instituted an unprecedented investment programme to prepare for the championships.

Earmarking some €15 billion, the Ukrainian government aims to reinvent the country’s infrastructure and drag it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It is difficult to fault Ukraine’s ambition. Unsurprisingly, roads will get one of the biggest portions of funding, with a figure totalling more than €5 billion. Key priorities are completion of the Lviv-Krakovets and Lviv-Brody highway sections, along with bypass roads for Lugansk and Donetsk.

Major rail projects are in place to modernise and streamline the country’s train system. New rolling stock, electrification of thousands of kilometres of lines and the construction of high-speed inter city routes are all

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Polish workers lay the concrete for the new Stadium, Baltic Arena of Gdansk, for the UEFA EURO 2012 in Gdansk, Poland planned. Additionally, underground lines in Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev and Kharkiv are to be extended, while building on Donetsk’s first underground line is also hoped to be completed. Funds are also going to the construction and expansion of municipal tram networks to enable fans to move around Ukrainian cities with greater ease.

Airports will receive around €1.1 billion of investment. Work is focused on two near Kiev and a further six at Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odessa, Donetsk, Simferopol and Lviv. This funding will be focused on building new terminals and runways, as well as modernising existing ones that lag behind their counterparts in Western Europe.

While this huge raft of improvements looks great on paper, there continue to be doubts over Ukraine’s ability to deliver them in time for 2012.

Transport projects in particular are a major cause for concern, as efforts to secure funding for a huge proportion of them have foundered due to political infighting. Ukraine remains mired in post-communist corruption and there are unusually high levels of antipathy between the offices of the President and the Prime Minister, with neither reluctant to publicly criticise the other. Speaking in June, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko said: “How can we talk about Euro 2012, when the budget envisions €4.5 billion from the stabilization fund, but only €330 million has been financed.

Speaking about the roads: €2.5 billion should have been channelled for the roads, but only €30 million has been granted as of May 20.”

In early July, Ukrainian newspaper Dzis reported that millions of Ukrainian hryven intended for infrastructure projects and the completion of Kiev’s flagship stadium had simply disappeared. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy, has said that his city is yet to receive any of the allocated state funds that were promised. This has resulted in delays to urgent road building projects and work on the new stadium, alongside a situation at the airport which Sadovy described as “a catastrophe”.

Compounding these issues, June saw the resignation of Transport Minister Yosyp Vinsky, who stepped down after a serious disagreement with the country’s Prime Minister. “My statement [of resignation] has been stipulated by serious disagreements with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over political, staff and economic issues, as well as the ethics of relations between members of the Cabinet of Ministers,” said Vinsky on his resignation. He also alleged that Tymoshenko was blocking reforms essential to

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address Ukraine’s transport problems as well as hampering the allocation of funds to Euro 2012 building programmes.

In response, the Prime Minister has accused Vinsky of corruption. “I understand that Mr Vinsky was displeased that we put a stop to his improper use of up to 15 million hryvnias (€1.4 million) in funds meant for the post office which he intended to use for promoting himself,” she said. “I believe this could be a good lesson for everyone who has committed the sin of illegal use of state funds.”

It is worth noting that both Vinsky and Tymoshenko are mooted as rivals in an upcoming presidential election, which may well account for the volatility of their relationship. However, this is a domestic political row that has the potential to spill over internationally if Ukraine finds itself unable to meet its Euro 2012 obligations.

While it is impossible to ignore the many obstacles that lie between Ukraine and a successful European Cup, Poland too faces some big problems. While its airport and hotel infrastructure does seem in much better shape than that of its neighbour, it is bedevilled by similar deficiencies in its road network. With only 435km of expressways and 765km of genuine highways, Poland is some distance behind even many of its non-EU neighbours when it comes to modern road infrastructure. When the Championships were awarded to Poland and Ukraine in 2007, the then government made the bold claim that it would build 3000km of new highways and expressways before the football fans started rolling in.

Now that we’re a few years closer to the deadline, a new government has made a slightly revised pledge of 2000km of new roads by 2012. But even dropping the target by a third leaves Poland with a mountain to climb, given the historically glacial speed of road construction in the country.

Stymied by a bureaucratic system that’s slow pace has been compounded by endless appeals from companies that fail to win tenders, progress continues to be slow. Current infrastructure minister Cezary Grabarczyk has

maintained at least the appearance of confidence that targets can be reached. “We will get the highways built on time,” he asserts. “By 2012, you will be able to drive from the German border to Warsaw on a completed highway.” But Grabarczyk’s bullish assessment is not universally shared.

“I think 500km of the government’s programme is in danger,” says Adrian Furgalski of transport consultancy TOR. A particular concern is the key section connecting Warsaw with Lodz, but there are problems all over the largely communist-era road network. What makes these matters even more

Ukraine Population Area Paved highway s Railways Airports

46 million 603,500 sq km 163,898 km 22,473 km 437

A view of NSC Olympiyskiy stadium reconstruction in Kiev, Ukraine, where the matches of Euro 2012 are to be held

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GOING FOR GOLD: ATHENS 2004 he position that Poland and Ukraine find themselves in now is mirrored by that of Greece in the run up to the 2004 Olympic Games. Before the games began, there was a steady drip of stories suggesting that the facilities would not be ready and that the notoriously congested traffic system of host city Athens would lead to disaster. In the event, the games were a success, and perhaps more importantly, their effects have gone on to be felt for years. Most striking is the impact improvements for the games have had on

T

The opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, August 13, 2004

Olympic Stadium in Athens during 2004 renovations in preparation for the 2000 circa pics, Olym Summer

pressing is that the benefits of road improvement will continue long after every football fan has returned home. Poland’s crumbling road infrastructure is a major brake on progress, as the country’s narrow and crowded routes discourage investment. Beyond the financial implications, there is also a human cost. As a result of so much heavy traffic being funnelled through the hearts of towns and villages, Poland’s roads are particularly dangerous. Upwards of 5000 people die in road traffic accidents there every year, a figure more than twice the EU average.

There has been some good news to report though. At the beginning of July, Grabarczyk announced that funding for the Swiecko-Nowy Tomysl section of a key road to the German border had finally been confirmed. “The whole thing had become a bit of a horror,” Grabarczyk confessed. “The talks were complicated, as the European Investment Bank, 11 commercial banks and also the company responsible for the construction are all contributing to the financing.”

Coming even in the midst of a victory, that statement demonstrates the difficulty the Polish, and Ukrainian, authorities are experiencing in tackling

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Athens’ traffic system. Road improvements, investment in public transport and traffic management technology have all provided an impressive legacy for the city’s permanent inhabitants. Following the long construction period before the games, when Athenians experienced serious problems with transportation, the city now benefits from a significantly less congested major road network and a high quality public transport system. Despite costing somewhere in the region of €6 billion, the ensuing benefits can certainly be viewed as value for money.

Euro 2012 infrastructure challenges. For Grabarczyk, securing the funding was a double reason for celebration. He had been given an ultimatum by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk that if he didn’t demonstrate some serious progress by the beginning of July, he would be out of a job. Grabarczyk’s narrow escape is a further illustration of the desperation behind the scenes.

While UEFA President Michel Platini has stated that there are no plans to take the Euro 2012 Championships away from the current hosts, significant doubts remain. Ukraine in particular has major cause for concern. A great deal now rests on UEFA’s November deadline to show progress, with failure to do so potentially seeing games moved to venues in Poland, or even Germany.

While it would still be billed as co-host, Ukraine could end up only staging games at Kiev. That would be a significant blow, both for the nation’s finances and its international standing. But even if the games go ahead at four locations in both countries as planned, failure to address the shortcomings in infrastructure could instead dramatically tarnish the reputations that Poland and Ukraine are trying so hard to build.

BOMAG AD.indd 1

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FEATURE

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It’s time to let go of our old-fashioned notions of rail transport and put high-speed trains on the fast track, says UK Transport Minister Lord Andrew Adonis.

E

urostar is a remarkable Anglo-French success story, on a par with Concorde in seizing the public imagination. However, I confidently predict that it will be rather more enduring and transformational in its legacy, and that it will be only the first of many high-speed rail companies to run services in the UK over the years ahead, as new services develop on High Speed One, and as High Speed Two – and who knows perhaps even High Speed Three and Four – come into operation in the decades ahead.

High Speed Two is only likely to be built soon if we forge a strong cross-party consensus behind not only the concept of a north-south high-speed line but also, behind a definite proposal for the line and its financing. The bane of infrastructure planning in the post-war decades was the failure to develop a national consensus behind essential long-term improvements, and I think we all deprecate the consequences.

Obviously there isn’t as yet a definite High Speed Two proposal; the new High Speed Two company has only been in existence for a few months and there will be a lot of devils in a lot of details, not least when it comes to the route and the financing.

But once we have a credible and acceptable scheme, I hope it will be possible to forge a cross-party consensus behind High Speed Two.

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THE NEXT PHASE High Speed One works as well as any other high speed line in the world. Average infrastructure delay is about six seconds per train, which is performance on a par with Japanese bullet trains. It is not the case that this country can’t manage world class infrastructure to world class standards. HS1 was also ultimately built to time and within budget, with substantial private funding – although both the time and the budget were adjusted upwards, and the effective share of private finance downwards – several times before the final restructuring of London and Continental Railways in 2002. The line is also one of the – if not the – most expensive high-speed railway built in the world per kilometre, only partly because of the long tunnel on the approach to London. So, having not built a single major overground railway in the entire 20th century, we have now done it successfully in the 21st century, and we are well placed to do it a second time, but we must demand greater efficiency and cost control as our engineers and project managers master the art.

It is in that spirit that we have asked High Speed Two to propose a high-speed plan to us by the end of the year, starting with a firm route proposition – and associated economic and environmental assessments – for a line from London to the West Midlands, with advice also on the possibilities for extension beyond the West Midlands in terms of services to in particular to the great conurbations of the north-west, West Yorkshire, the north-east and central Scotland. We intend to consider the report intensively immediately after its receipt, and to consult the other political parties upon it, with a view to indicating a definite way forward in the early part of 2010.

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Until recently, most observers in Britain thought that high-speed rail was largely about Japanese bullet trains and French TGVs, and that there were particular reasons to do with the geography, politics and transport planning regime in Japan and France which made them exceptional in respect of their rail technology. Britain’s one engagement so far with highspeed rail – the London to Folkestone line – was conceived as a project largely separate from the existing rail network; hence its very name – the ‘Channel Tunnel Rail Link’ – and the fact that domestic services were only a minor part of the scheme in its original conception.

All that is changing fast. The first backdrop to this is the growing scale and success of high-speed rail not only in France and Japan, but across Europe and Asia. Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, Taiwan and Korea have all followed Japan and France in the international high-speed rail revolution. In all, 3600 miles of high-speed line are in operation in Europe, a further 2000 are under construction and 5300 are planned.

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As for their impact, high-speed lines have generally led to dramatic increases in rail traffic. As successive lines develop into national and crossborder networks, the network effects become larger still. In all these countries, high-speed rail is not just about faster trains. It is also about much higher capacity rail systems, designed to cope more effectively with the full range of demands on the network – commuter and freight services as well as inter-city services – and to be interoperable with those of neighbouring countries. It means greener transport and carbon reduction, and getting people out of cars and planes. It is also about economic regeneration and better social integration. In Europe, it is means transEuropean networks and the creation of a more integrated and prosperous European market.

Country by country, high speed rail is – or is becoming – a key driver of modernisation economic, environmental and social; it is not simply a better, faster means of transport. The French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, recently described the French TGV as one of the two infrastructural transformations of modern France; the other being energy independence through the French nuclear programme.

This international experience has held a major impact on my thinking and that of the Government. In my view, it is no longer a defensible position to oppose high-speed rail on the grounds of English exceptionalism. I recently came across the argument that we have less to gain from high-speed rail because our cities our closer together than those in France. This is frankly comical. We need to en-

“High speed rail is a key driver of modernisation economic, environmental and social”

PA Wire URN:7515592 (Press Association via AP Images)

Lord Adonis speaking in the House of Lords.

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EUROPEAN UNION Eurostar CEO Richard Brown on becoming part of a wider network. e see High Speed one as plugging Britain and Eurostar into an extended European high-speed network. So through Railteam – the group of eight of the north European high-speed train operators – we’re working hard to develop through travel from one operator to another using a simple fare structure and easyto-access timetable information, so that travelling around that rapidly growing network becomes as easy as travelling domestically.

Each new link in that infrastructure network contributes to the performance of existing links, as well as providing new accessibility for operators and opening up journeys between new cities for passengers. There is a lot of synergy as that network continues to expand. For instance, France and Spain will be joined up in the next few years with highspeed, and you will be able to take Eurostar from London to Paris and switch to TGV from Paris to Spain. It really does open up a much wider range of journey possibilities.

There’s a growing body of opinion, particularly in some of the regional cities, that being linked to that Europe-wide network will be essential in the coming years. On the continent, I think it’s much more accepted that high-speed is the way forward. As an operator, the challenges are more how we get the reservation systems and the fare systems for what are essentially national railways to talk to each other and to link up for consumers, which is a key project for Railteam. Then having done that, to put in place simple, attractive through fares. At the moment, if somebody wants to go from London to Austria, you end up putting fares together from two, if not three, different operators for different portions of the journey. And it’s no surprise that what you end up with doesn’t necessarily bear much relation to the market price. So that’s clearly a big challenge: to get national operators to think in terms of an international market.

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gage systematically with the experience of countries making a success of high-speed rail and learn from it.

In other non-high speed rail countries, notably Canada and the United States, the transport debate is shifting high-speed in the same direction.

On the day of President Obama’s election last November, Governor Schwarzenegger won a ballot proposition for a bond to pay the first US$10bn needed for a San Francisco to Los Angeles high-speed line.

President Obama’s fiscal stimulus package included the first federal funding in the US for high-speed rail; when I was in Paris recently I found myself hot on the heels of the mayors of both San Francisco and Montreal, who had been receiving similar presentations from SNCF about the French experience. Under the headline ‘By ignoring rail options, US is on the wrong track’, a commentator in the New York Times recently wrote: “The truth is that when it comes to rail transport... Americans haven’t made much palpable improvement, at least not compared with our friends and competitors in Europe and Asia. It is as though we got fixed in amber someplace between the 1920s and the 1960s with our big cars, our slow trains and our crowded, legroom-challenged skies. And while the rest of the world forges ahead with new and better ways of moving people from place to place – namely on super-fast trains – we are waiting in the tunnel for the train ahead to cross.”

That is the changing view from the US. In Britain we are in a better place, both in not getting stuck in tunnels – with our longest tunnel, the Channel Tunnel, accounting for nearly a third of our 100 miles of genuinely high-speed line – and also in our upgrading of the railways, which have undergone a renaissance in terms both of usage and investment. This rail renaissance is the second backdrop to this discussion; it is a crucial part of the capacity case for high-speed rail, and it ought to give us confidence that we can progress effectively to the next major phase of railway development.

Rail passenger and freight volumes have grown at a remarkable rate over the past decade. Passenger numbers are more than 50 percent higher. There were 1.2 billion passenger journeys in 2007, higher than at any time since 1946. Freight traffic is up by 40 percent in the past decade. The number of services, and service quality, have also improved steadily.

Across the network as a whole, the number of train services increased in the December timetable change alone by more than five percent, to 104,500 a week – the highest on the network since before Beeching. This includes a 9.8 percent increase in Sunday services, and a 6.5 percent increase on Saturdays, as we seek to offer a reliable seven-day-a-week railway in place of the patchy weekend timetables of the past.

As for network modernisation and new lines, the €16 billion Crossrail project will take 24 trains an hour through central London on a line that connects Heathrow and the west of the capital, through the business and commercial heart of the City, into Docklands and to Essex beyond. Going north-south through London, the Thameslink upgrade will enable up to 24 trains an hour to run from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and the north of London through central London to Brighton and other destinations in the south. These are both transformational projects that will improve radically the network at its most congested and economically vital heart. We are also pioneering the next generation of inter-city trains on the existing network, which will take over from the ageing diesel inter-city 125 fleet and provide

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greater express capacity on the electrified network, while at the same time we are analysing plans for further intercity electrification.

This brings me to the successful completion of High Speed One, as we now call the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, in a symbolic change of name. I said earlier that in its original conception HS1 was essentially a project – a visionary project – to get from London to Paris in just over two hours. More prosaically, it also became a congestion relief and service upgrading project for trains from East Kent to London, and this aspect loomed steadily larger as the financing of the international services became increasingly problematic. HS1 would offer an opportunity to tackle the acute shortage of capacity on the Kent commuter lines into London, while also opening up key network bottlenecks such as London Bridge, allowing for other commuter service expansion projects such as the north-south Thameslink line through central London.

This domestic capacity enhancement dimension of the HS1 project became particularly attractive because of the very poor rail infrastructure bequeathed by the unproductive cut-throat Victorian competition between the South Eastern and the London, Chatham and Dover railway companies, which left East Kent with one of the worst built railway networks in the country.

“There will be many siren voices telling us not to bother about planning for the long term when the short-term crisis is so grave.

They are wrong! Short-termism is the British transport disease” As it turns out, the second fiddle on HS1 looks set to replace the lead violin. Traffic on the 140 mph Javelin trains from St Pancras, via High Speed One and then onto the Chatham, Ashford, Canterbury and Folkestone lines, will be significantly greater than the international Eurostar business. With the best standard journey times from London to Ashford cut from 60 minutes to 37, to Folkestone from 79 minutes to 63 and to Canterbury from 87 minutes to 62, Southeastern plans from this autumn to run up to eight commuter trains an hour to and from St Pancras in peak times.

This raises two points of considerable significance to the development of High Speed Two. First, similar capacity pressures to East Kent, requiring network solutions, apply – or will apply as traffic increases – in respect of other strategic rail corridors. The government’s High Speed Two document highlights the rail corridor from London to the West Midlands. But I am also struck by the limitations imposed by poor network conditions elsewhere in terms of extraordinarily slow journey times between major conurbations.

Consider Manchester, Bradford and Leeds, three of the biggest population and business centres in the country. Manchester and Leeds are separated by only 43 Trans-Pennine rail miles, but the rail journey time is 55 minutes – an average speed as slow as London to Canterbury, which is quite an achievement.

My second reflection is that, although there is a high price involved in building high-speed lines, there is also a high price involved in not building

them where additional rail capacity is required anyway. This high price is measured not only in lost economic and social benefits but also in the direct cost of upgrading existing congested rail lines, which is very large indeed.

This second lesson is much more apparent to us than it was before HS1, because we now have the direct experience of the 10 year plus project to upgrade the West Coast Main Line (WCML), completed. This upgrade was essential to achieve additional rail capacity on a principal inter-city route, enabling more frequent and much faster and more reliable trains. To provide this on the WCML – Britain’s principal inter-city rail artery, which also has heavy commuter and goods traffic – an essentially patch-and-mend approach was adopted, to secure a transformation in capacity and service quality for much less than the cost of building an entirely new line. Many of these benefits have indeed been secured: thrice hourly trains now run from London to Birmingham and Manchester with journey times faster than ever before. Passengers have never had a better service.

However, it has not been an easy journey. The original mid-1990s spec for the WCML project was for a €4.7 billion upgrade to provide not only greater capacity but also 140 mph running and state-of-the-art signalling as on High Speed One. Ten years later? The cost turned out at €10.2 billion for what in the jargon is called a “de-scoped” project for 125 mph running speed, not 140 mph, with the new signalling postponed and the capacity enhancement very much less than would have been achieved by a new line. Of the €10.2 billion spent on the WCML upgrade, more than €580 million has gone in compensation payments to train operating companies for not being able to operate services during the long periods of engineering work, and that does begin to price the true cost of the disruption to passengers in services cancelled or diverted year after year.

For the future, we need to assess the relative merits, including disruption saved, of building new lines rather than highly disruptive and expensive major upgrades of existing lines. The government projection is for a doubling of passenger demand by 2030. How far, on congested lines, growth is met by incremental upgrades, and how far by new lines, is a critical issue which will determine the development of new commuter as well as high-speed lines. If the cost of disruption is fully taken into account, it is by no means clear that ostensibly lower priced upgrades are always better value than new lines, including new high-speed lines.

These, then, are the three key – the increasingly positive international experience of high-speed rail; the rail renaissance here in the UK; and the successful completion of HS1 which ought to give us confidence that we can do the same again with HS2.

I strongly approve of the editorial in the recent issue of Transport Times that ends with these words: “There will be many siren voices telling us not to bother about planning for the long term when the short term crisis is so grave. They are wrong! Short-termism is the British transport disease.” I agree with every word. Let long-termism be our theme for the future, and High Speed Two its driving force.

This article is based on a speech given at the 2009 Transport Times conference.

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FEATURE

Urban renewel takes many forms and has the power to radically change the soul of a city.

Here, EU Infrastructure’s Matt Buttell looks at how regenerations are affecting Europe and rounds-up some of the most striking projects of the last few decades.

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elcome to Vilnius, both Lithuania’s largest and capital city. Vilnius, coupled with Linz in Austria, is this year’s European Capital of Culture. And, in terms of regeneration, it’s a good place to start. The European Capital of Culture, being the city designated by the EU for the period of one calendar year, is given this chance to showcase its cultural life and cultural development. Traditionally a number of European cities have used their City of Culture year to transform their cultural base and, in doing so, the way in which they are viewed internationally. During the first two decades of the scheme, for example, cities that were chosen were done so primarily based on cultural history, scheduled events and the ability to provide infrastructural and financial support. Then, following a 2004 study by the European Culture Commission, it was realised that the choice of European Capital of Culture served as a catalyst for the cultural development and the transformation of that city. Consequently, the beneficial social-economic development and impact also began to

be considered when choosing who would receive the designation.

This year, in Vilnius, the position of Capital of Culture resulted in New Year’s Eve celebrations that included a light show said to have been ‘visible from outer space’ and, in the build up to the event, the restoration and renewal of many of the city’s main monuments. The facade of the Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports was transformed into a multilevel glazed wall, where musical performances were broadcast onto huge screens installed in Cathedral Square; then, at midnight January 1st 2009, along the banks of the Neris River, 60 spotlights, 10 laser cannons and other assorted devices fired a breathtaking dome of light across the city. Now, throughout the year, Vilnius is offering some three million expected visitors an array of 900 cultural events, 600 of which will be free.

But it’s not just the City of Culture designation that stipulates the need for urban renewal. In the shadow of the credit crunch, many cities across Europe are looking to push their development, create new environments for workers and stimulate their economies. And from shopping malls to residential areas, to commercial

“Over the past 30 years the construction of urban regeneration projects has reflected wider government policy”

REGENERATION

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Parque das Nações Lisbon, Portugal The Parque das Nações (Park of the Nations) is a leisure, commercial and residential area covering an extensive area in northeastern Lisbon next to the Tagus estuary, which was formerly used for industrial purposes. The area, which underwent a tremendous transformation in the 1990s when it was chosen as the location for the Expo ’98 World Exhibition, saw further transformations with the construction of the Vasco da Gama shopping mall, Lisbon’s International Fair complex, hotels and many new office and residential buildings. Many attractions built for Expo ’98 remained and keep drawing visitors, such as the Oceanarium, one of the world’s biggest aquariums. Currently an estimated 15,000 people live in the Nations’ Park, which is halved between the Lisbon and Loures municipalities, effectively splitting the local government of the area.

complexes to leisure facilities, these sorts of developments are now punctuating the European landscape.

In the UK for example, across many areas of the country, the impact of urban renewal has been huge. Defined as a complex combination of social, economic, planning, construction and management activities, urban regeneration has, over the years, brought together the ability to improve the social sustainability, economic stability and the infrastructure of a geographical location, which in turn has proven to help improve the sustainability of the urban landscape it occupies. Yet, according to one definition of urban regeneration, while it is frequently claimed that UK initiatives have largely improved the quality of life in regeneration areas, it is also still heavily criticised.

In fact, according to reports from the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA), this is because, in the past, urban regeneration has involved the purchase of residential properties in run down areas, meaning that family housing is frequently replaced by flats and apartments which are then priced too highly to be affordable for the people who used to live there, instead appealing to a totally different type of home buyer. “There is no doubt that over the past 30 years the nature and construction of urban regeneration projects has reflected wider government policy,” reads one BURA report. “The high profile construction of exclusive waterside regeneration developments at London’s Canary Wharf or Liverpool’s Albert Dock in the 1980s, for example, reflected, in part, the hopes and aspirations of the Conservative government at that time.”

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Clyde Waterfront Regeneration Glasgow, United Kingdom Clyde Waterfront is a 20km stretch of the River Clyde in Scotland and with over 200 projects on both sides of the river it is one of Britain’s largest urban renewal projects.

Throughout the area projects are in place to transform business, housing, tourism and infrastructure. The anticipated investment in Clyde Waterfront from public and private money is now estimated at €6.5 billion. Meanwhile, in Glasgow city centre, the International Financial Services District (IFSD) has been set up to attract new financial companies to the city and has now created one million square feet of new Grade ‘A’ office accommodation in the centre of the city. Back on the north side of the river, the first phase of the €1.4 billion residential development at Glasgow Harbour is almost entirely sold out and the second phase of housing, know as GH20, will provide a further 800 apartments, with many already sold or occupied. Phase 3 of the housing development is now beginning to take shape.

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3 Nonetheless, BURA is an organisation pushing for regeneration across the nation. “We have a unique strength that derives from our wide range of members in the private, public and community sectors,” explains CEO Michael Ward, “and this distinguishes us from any other sector interest group.”

Currently, BURA is working towards August’s BURA Awards for Best Practice in Regeneration. Speaking about the event Ward explained, “BURA’s Best Practice Awards recognise true excellence in regeneration, and at a time when many projects have stalled and future prospects for public spending are uncertain, BURA aims to seek out the very best from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to show others what can be achieved.”

Take the new report from the UK Government, for example. Entitled Transforming Places; Changing Lives: taking forward the regeneration framework (TPCL) the report sets out proposals to deliver a new national framework for regeneration. “Planning is a key driver of regeneration,” says Ward, “which, in line with the Government’s response set out in TPCL, can provide a clear policy framework and facilitate a partnership approach. This commentary will then provide a focus on the relationship between TPCL and statutory planning policy.”

At least, that’s the hope for the UK. Meanwhile, URBACT, a European Programme funded by the ERDF, which aims to foster the exchange of experience among European cities on all issues related to sustainable urban development, is now beginning its second cycle. The first cycle (URBACT I), which lasted between 2002 and 2006, was a Community Initiative programme set up to foster networking between cities having benefited from the previous URBAN I, URBAN II and PPU programmes. Consequently, URBACT I focused on social cohesion within deprived areas in European cities.

Their partners and their inhabitants have since become beneficiaries of such programmes.

Now, through the second cycle (URBACT II), the challenge is to improve the effectiveness of sustainable integrated urban development policies in Europe with a view to implementing the European Lisbon-Gothenburg

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Redevelopment of Norrmalm, Sweden The Redevelopment of Norrmalm (Norrmalmsregleringen) was a major revision, which was realised during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The renewal resulted in the old Klara quarters being replaced for the modern city of Stockholm, while the Stockholm subway was extended through the city. The renewal of Norrmalm was the largest Swedish urban development project to date and engaged a large part of Sweden’s architectural elite. The Norrmalm renewal was both been criticised and admired throughout Sweden and internationally, and is now regarded as one of the largest of all city renewals in Europe during post-war time, even including the cities that took severe damage during World War II.

Strategy. The objectives include the need to provide an exchange and learning tool for policy decision-makers, practitioners and other actors involved in developing urban policies; learn from the exchanges between URBACT partners that share experiences and good practices; disseminate good practices and lessons learned from exchanges to all European cities; and assist city policy-makers, practioners and managers of operational programmes to define solid action plans.

It seems then that while there may be no single European ‘model’ for successful urban regeneration, a consistent approach does seem to run throughout. And that is the presence a powerful local authority that is using the regeneration scheme to not just revive a run down area but also to change the whole image of the city and transform its strategic economic position. In the long run, as history has shown, successful urban regeneration will not only work at the physical level but will also result in successful, viable, vibrant and sustainable communities.

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Croydon Vision 2020 London, United Kingdom

Croydon Vision 2020 is a regeneration programme by the London Borough of Croydon in South London. The programme seeks to affect the urban planning of Central Croydon extensively and promote the area as hub of living, retailing, culture and business in South London and South East England. Currently €4.1 billion has been committed to proposed development projects, which include a 12,500 maximum capacity arena, offering office space, apartments, supermarkets, health clubs, bars and restaurants; three residential developments and providing 337 apartments in the town centre; a shopping mall, bus station and office development with a new public square; a mixeduse development consisting of a 44 storey tower, 800 new homes, 3000m² of retail and public realm space and a new 25,824 m² office and retail development directly opposite East Croydon train station.

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Regeneration through culture Bilbao, Spain

The Transformation of Kazimierz Kraków, Poland

The objectives of the urban regeneration projects in Bilbao are to change the industrial image of the city and introduce new service and cultural activities which would be able to attract tourists, visitors and businesses. Through the creation of cultural infrastructure, services and waterfront, the area for regeneration is focused on the inner-city’s old industrial area and the declining neighbourhoods in and around the city. Subsequently a series of strategic guidelines and major infrastructure projects for the future regional development were assembled, including a focus on restructuring the region from an industrial one to an area with an important services and cultural sector; and the integration of public and private partners in the strategic design, planning and implementation processes. It is believed that the whole population of the areas which form the urban regeneration projects will benefit from new parks, public places, new roads and bicycle tracks in the regenerated areas.

Over the last 20 years, the district of Kazimierz has faced a revitalisation as complex as its very history.

The process of renewal in the urban village started in the early 1990s and the results are apparent today in buildings, the scale of business activity, the residents and the image it presents to Krakóvians and visitors. As a result the growth in the quarter has main been driven by market forces, and nowhere is this more prominent than in the previously dilapidated Jewish quarter, which is dominated by commercial activities based on its Jewish cultural heritage and tourism is now becoming the most important function of the district.

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ASK THE EXPERT

The price is right Q-Free’s Per Fredrik Ecker explores the past, present and future of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) road pricing.

PER FREDRIK ECKER

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he implementation of GNSS-based road user charging (RUC) is now approaching a reality in Europe. Leading the way is Slovakia’s decision to go for a GNSS-based solution for the nationwide truck tolling project. GNSS is often referred to as either a satellite navigation system or as GPS (from the American abbreviation of Global Positioning System) but all systems based on GPS are classified as GNSS. Road user charging (RUC) systems based on GNSS require an On Board Unit (OBU) positioned in the vehicle. The OBU uses satellite signals to pinpoint its current position and to calculate the toll fee. The data is then transmitted via mobile radio signals (usually GSM) from the OBU to the back office system where an invoice is generated and sent to the user.

In January 2009, Q-Free, together with Siemens, won the contract to deliver the new Truck Tolling project for Slovakia SkyToll. Q-Free supplies the central system and enforcement system and a three-year service agreement for a GPS-based truck tolling system in the Slovak Republic. Siemens supplies the first 80,000 OBUs. The construction phase will continue throughout 2009.

Following the growth of the truck tolling market, we will then move on to offer industrialised solutions for GNSS-based road user charging; We already offer ready system solutions, with GNSS OBUs, communication infrastructure, enforcement solutions and operational back office solutions.

The clear thing that is now differentiating QFree from other players is that we have a world leading DRSC solution complimented by a proven GNSS charging solution. From past supplier experiences, people think that a GNSS OBU is a huge and expensive piece of equipment, but that is not strictly true: The Q-Free GNSS OBU, for instance, is small, elegant and non-intrusive and is not much bigger than an existing DRSC tag. Think of it as a DSRC OBU with a power wire. The OBU still fits on the windscreen just like a DSRC tag.

It is the OBU that is the key. A GNSS OBU would have cost €500 a few years ago. Today it’s significantly lower, less in volume, making the GNSS road pricing market more competitive when you consider the savings in road-side infrastructure and speed of scheme deployment.

GNSS road pricing is a hot topic in Europe at the moment as several new projects are about to be announced. GNSS-based technology is mostly being used for heavy goods vehicles. The German HGV system and the Slovakia SkyToll system lead the way.

GNSS truck tolling schemes have already been implemented and proven beyond doubt in Germany. With Slovakia’s decision to implement GNSS truck tolling, together with the firm plans in France, the Netherlands and possibly Slovenia, it is obvious that the GNSS truck tolling market will constitute a considerable share of the market for road user charging in Europe in the near future.

DSRC, ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and GNSS-based RUC solutions or a combination of these is the future. No matter which technology is chosen, this high potential market is rapidly growing. We will also see other applications develop in the future like vehicleto-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication that will co-exist with the more traditional RUC applications. The outlook is simply that the GNSS segment of the RUC industry will continue to grow. Major procurements are happening and more and more countries are initiating GNSS-based solutions for road charging, especially countries which don’t have a charging scheme and are now looking at satellite based solutions.

Tolling projects usually span many years, and at Q-Free we want to make sure that we have the right solutions. Governments and concessionaires have to make huge decisions about what is going to be the technology of the future. n Per Fredrik Ecker is Vice President Sales & Marketing for Q-Free ASA in Norway, one of the leading road user charging infrastructure suppliers. He has broad international experience from several management positions in Siemens Mobile, Siemens Shanghai Mobile Communication Ltd. China (SSMC) and Siemens Wireless Access West Europe, Siemens AG.

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CAPITAL INVESTMENT

Six years after its establishment, the London congestion charge zone remains the most ambitious such project in the world. We sat down with Transport for London’s Graeme Craig to hear about its growing pains and where it goes from here.

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London’s congestion charging programme is one of the largest in the world. What challenges did the implementation of such an ambitious undertaking present to TFL? Graeme Craig. When the central London scheme was introduced back in February of 2003 it was the first of its type in the world, so of course when we switched it on we couldn’t be absolutely sure what the impact was going to be. As it happens, the scheme itself worked largely as planned, but we did learn lots of lessons about contract management and operational management. The numbers of people using the scheme weren’t as we originally estimated and it did take some months after going live to sort those things out.

The original cost of the scheme was €187 million and of that about half, €93 million, was actually spent on changes to the traffic management around the zone because of the impact the zone itself would have. These days we’re much more experienced and the market is much more mature, so we expect to deliver an equivalent of a London scheme for less than half the price of that cost.

You mentioned that there were changes you had to make. What were those?

GC. We’ve made hundreds of changes to the way the scheme works since it was first introduced. It has been effective in terms of its original aim of reducing traffic, but we didn’t make it as easy as we should have done for the people who used the scheme and that’s one of the major lessons. There was and still is no automated payment system, so drivers have to remember to pay when they drive in the zone, and sometimes they forget and end up getting a fine. In 2006 we started giving drivers an extra day to pay the charge and that helped but still not enough, so next year we’re implementing a new system using IBM and we’re also introducing an automated payment scheme, and that should eliminate the risk of people forgetting to pay the charge.

People will register their vehicle registration number, and then after they’ve driven in the zone – we’re still to determine exactly where – but on a weekly basis we’ll then charge the driver either from their bank account or credit or debit card for the times we saw them inside the zone on the cameras placed around and inside the zone.

Another view Stockholm: taxing times While some congestion charging schemes have been criticised as a form of stealth tax, the Swedish project has been confident enough to label itself as a tax from the outset. Following a seven-month trial period, the charge was implemented on a permanent basis in August 2007 and covers Stockholm city centre virtually in its entirety. What is particularly interesting about the Swedish project is that when Stockholm’s residents were given a referendum on it, they voted to make it permanent. Sweden’s population is used to shoulder a fairly hefty tax burden, which goes some way to accounting for this acceptance.

network. We’ve also made it easier and safer to walk around and cycle around London. One of the impacts the congestion charging scheme has had is that we’ve seen a 66 percent increase in the number of people cycling into London, which obviously is a good news story.

In terms of implementing the congestion charging system, did you have to make any infrastructure improvements in order for the system to work?

GC. We effectively built a new system for congestion charging. We have 348 locations and over 1300 cameras. We outsourced the operation of the scheme and the outsource provider we use at present, Capita, operates from a contact centre based in Coventry in the West Midlands.

So there was a new contact centre built – a new camera infrastructure

What changes did you make in terms of the infrastructure improvements?

GC. The congestion charge raised revenue last year of €160 million net after paying for the administration of the scheme, and by law any revenues raised through congestion charging must be spent on transport. So what the congestion charging scheme has done is helped to improve the London transport network.

Particularly we’ve improved the bus network. It’s obviously much quicker and much less expensive to improve a bus network than an underground network, so in terms of helping people with options for how they travel into London we decided to improve the bus

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at that point London would be gridlocked. It’s a more complex picture because of the other factors at play, but in terms of reducing traffic the congestion charge has been successful.

Is there anything you’d do differently given the opportunity?

GC. I’ve already explained that we have made lots of changes to the scheme and we didn’t make it easy as we should have done for the people using it. Other things in terms of doing differently, the biggest challenge for our congestion charging scheme at present within the UK, and across the world, is public acceptance. It is those elements that relate to ease of use that are the crucial ones that any scheme has to consider, as part of ensuring that it will be acceptable to the people who need to drive in the area.

around London and a hub site within London as well – which is where we assemble and compare the images of those people who’ve been seen within London against a record of those people who’ve paid.

The scheme has been in operation for a little over six years now. What success have you seen to date and how does it reduce congestion?

GC. It’s been very successful. Traffic in central London is down 20 percent, so we have 70,000 fewer vehicles entering central London every day as a result of the charge being in place, and that effect was seen on the day in which charging was first switched on. Six years later it’s still as successful and still having as much impact in terms of reducing traffic as it was when it was first introduced. That said, despite the continued decrease in traffic we have seen rises in the levels of congestion, and that’s the amount of time that vehicles spend in queues.

Now we know that the rising congestion isn’t related to traffic levels because traffic levels have remained as low as they were when the scheme was first introduced, so there are other factors at play, particularly the amount of utility works and street works within London. Thames Water may have to replace the water system within London, so of course those works need to take place. With no congestion charge there would be another 70,000 vehicles on the road, and

Another view Milan: green dream Milan’s congestion charging scheme, Ecopass, is aimed at reducing traffic pollution. Originally implemented as a one-year trial, it is awaiting public consultation to determine if the changes are to become permanent. The scheme is operated on a similar level to London and Stockholm but with a much greener focus – only vehicles entering the traffic-restricted zone with high-polluting engines will be charged, and older and most polluting vehicles are banned completely.

How did you go about gaining public acceptance for the congestion charge?

GC. There was a lot of work done in order to explain both how the scheme worked and the underlying purpose behind the scheme, and of course that’s critical. There are between 180,000 and 190,000 people a day who drive into central London and those people need to understand whether or not they are affected by the scheme, and if they are affected they need to understand how they pay for it. We’ve put a lot of effort into it, and it being such a high profile scheme helps in this regard – getting the message out there to people who need to use it. Then it just becomes a question of monitoring the scheme. We outsource the contract to the service provider but within Transport for London we’re obviously keen to understand if there are any issues, I’ll give you simple examples.

If you’re a resident who lives inside the central London zone then you only have to pay 10 percent of the charge because you get a 90 percent discount. We came up with criteria that people had to meet in order to prove that they’re a resident. Then we discovered that there are not insubstantial numbers of people who live in London who don’t have utility bills or bank statements with their address because they might have two addresses, and it might be that they spend five days a week living in London but at a property that’s paid for by their company and they have literally nothing in their name that proves they live there. In situations like that when you introduce a scheme there will be issues that do arise and you have to be prepared to understand and, escalate those issues, and to seek to come up with new sets of rules on an ongoing basis that reflect the experience that you see happening on the ground.

Based on your experiences with the London project, what recommendations would you give to other cities?

GC. Any scheme that’s introduced has to meet the local issues so that road pricing isn’t a panacea but designed properly and is a key part of a wider initiative to address the impact of growth in traffic, congestion and emissions, for example. A congestion charging scheme can be effective. Slightly different schemes have been effective in Stockholm and Milan. That’s the experience that we’ve seen within London and it has been the experience of schemes elsewhere.

Graeme Craig is Transport for London’s Director of Congestion Charging and Traffic Enforcement.

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ASK THE EXPERT

The road continues With the financial close for Phase 2 of the A1 Motorway in Poland, the long gestation period for this PPP project comes to another major milestone. By Zoltán Pap

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hase 2 of Poland’s A1 Motorway has just achieved financial close.

This is a significant achievement for Poland, the concessionaire (the Gdansk Transport Company, or GTC), its shareholders, the respective Ministries (Infrastructure and Finance) and for PPP schemes in Central and Eastern Europe, especially considering the state of the international capital markets, the world economic crisis and difficulties experienced in the past in bringing PPP projects to a close in Central and Eastern Europe.

The A1 Motorway connects the cities of Gdansk and Torun in central Poland and is an integral part of the north-south Pan European Transport Corridor VI route from the Baltic ports to Slovakia and hence the Adriatic.

The 90 km long Phase 1 from Gdansk to Nowe Marzy was opened to traffic in October 2008, some three months ahead of the contractual completion date. Actual traffic is slightly higher than the model’s forecast although the mix is different and in favour of light vehicles. This is particularly of interest considering that Poland still has a vignette system in use for heavy goods vehicles and only light vehicles and those without vignettes are tolled on the A1.

The 62 km long Phase 2 from Nowe Marzy to Torun crosses the Vistula River twice and includes two large bridges, one of which is two km long, crossing very sensitive environmental areas in the Vistula’s flood basin.

The Phase 1 lenders, the European Investment Bank and the Nordic Investment Bank, were joined for Phase 2 by the AB Svensk Exportkredit bank to provide the €1070 mil-

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lion loans. The payment mechanism is based on availability payments subject to performance and availability deductions and has an element of shadow toll.

A long and winding road During many of this project’s development phases it seemed as if it would never come to market. It took more than a decade to reach its first financial close as progress was thwarted by various groupings in a country where support for delivery of PPPs was at times difficult.

Like many of the EU Accession countries, Poland set out a large-scale investment programme to upgrade a significant proportion of the country’s ageing road network, much of which will be aided by EU funding. The A1 upgrade was first mooted in the early 1990s and was tendered in the latter stages of 1995 as a single-phase project. After a three-stage tendering process GTC was selected as the preferred bidder by the Polish transport ministry in 1997.

“An aggressive policy of expanding motorway infrastructure is badly needed for Poland to realise its true economic potential” Shortly afterwards, the scheme ran into major financial difficulties which were primarily due to a flaw in the country’s toll road policy. Only by 2004, almost 10 years since the

project first came to market, amendments to the toll road act had been made and finalised – enabling the financial close of Phase 1.

Negotiations on Phase 2 of the A1 Motorway Project started soon after financial close of Phase 1 in September 2005 but were suspended following the change in government in Poland later that year. The current government is pursuing an aggressive policy of expanding motorway infrastructure that is badly needed for Poland to realise its true economic potential.

Zoltán Pap is Project Development Director of Intertoll Europe, an independent toll and motorway infrastructure developer and operator – a wholly owned subsidiary of Group Five, a major construction group in South Africa. Pop has been involved in developing motorway concession projects since the 1990s. After working for Intertoll overseas he joined Intertoll Europe in 2001.

Lessons learnt?

The A1’s delivery was impeded by a lack of a consistent and transparent public sector approach to infrastructure development. This has recently changed as a central public sector decision taking authority for all facets of a PPP project’s delivery, a clear regulatory and environmental frameworks and strong financial support mechanisms has been introduced to assist in the future of PPP developments.

Completing the project ahead of schedule and exceeding the public sector’s delivery, operations and maintenance expectations together with capitalising on experiences gained on Phase 1 significantly contributed to a smoother and more focused closure for Phase 2.

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17/7/09 11:28:24

A GROUP FIVE COMPANY

INTERTOLL EUROPE IS AN INDEPENDENT TOLL AND MOTORWAY INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPER AND OPERATOR OFFERING THE FOLLOWING SERVICES: • Concession development based on over twenty years of international experience • Operations and maintenance of concession motorway infrastructure • Toll infrastructure design and development • Design and construction management of toll facilities

Contact Intertoll Europe for a professional and dedicated partner for concession projects in Europe HEAD OFFICE Intertoll Europe ZRt Fehérvári út 50-52 Budapest - 1117 Hungary Tel: +36 1 371 0762 Fax: +36 1 215 6165 Web: www.intertoll.eu e-mail: zoltan.pap@intertoll.eu

Inttertoll.indd 1

REGIONAL OFFICE Intertoll Europe – UK Judd House, 16 East Street Tonbridge Kent - TN9 1HG England Tel: + 44 1732 362 164 Fax: + 44 1 732 770 420 e-mail: tonys@intertoll.co.uk

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ANALYSIS

ROUTE PLANNING The European road system requires greater cooperation, increased innovation and more investment if it is to respond to 21st century challenges.

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s the numbers of vehicles on European roads continue to increase, along with the current difficulties of the economic situation, the transport sector is due a shake-up. All those involved in the industry have a great deal to consider if they are to be prepared for the numerous hurdles that are predicted for the road transportation infrastructure in coming years. In a bid to provide sufficient information to investors looking to improve the current situation of the road infrastructure, the Brussels Programme Centre of the International Road Federation has published Communication on the Future of Transport in June 2009.

The report highlights the priorities that ought to be taken into consideration by the European Commission when formulating plans for the future of transportation infrastructure, such as support transport policies based on a fair analysis of facts and figures. It also outlines other priorities as being improving the safety level on the existing road infrastructure and ensuring that the policies are enforced into all EU-funded road projects.

Safety is an issue receiving much attention within the report. It cites that in 2006 there were almost 43,000 fatalities on the roads of 27 of the European member states, but that there is too little press attention paid to the mounting deaths. Investments are needed for safety improvements from the infrastructure side, and each party involved in the road transportation infrastructure must be portioned a share of responsibility – developing new technological solutions to meet these demands.

The report specifies safety needs as being improved via road restraints systems and the importance of shifting more accountability onto infrastructure, such as developing research on the design of road widening and promoting research on intelligent barriers.

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Horizontal road markings are also named as providing greater safety measures, as well as vertical signs.

The continued increase in the mobility of people and goods are the source of many of the issues facing the road transportation infrastructure – congestion, traffic safety and the sector’s environment footprint are named as the issues needing innovative solutions such as intelligent transportation systems (ITS).

The wide-ranging applications of ITS are ever-expanding across all modes of transport – from electronic toll collection to automatic road enforcement. The report notes the emergency call technology eCall as having “already proved to be an indispensable tool to make a substantial contribution to road safety,” and when fully implemented into all member states by the proposed 2010, could save an estimated 2500 lives a year.

Sustainability is another aspect of the report. Road transport is cited as being one of the main challenges for sustainable development; a sustainable environment is considered a positive influence on economic growth and therefore important to factor into policies. Rather than the reduction of road transportation, the European Commission is looking at other ways to promote sustainable transport, such as optimized use of all transport modes and a better share of roads by all of its users.

The environmental goal includes policies of developing a methodology to audit the environmental quality of road projects, as well as creating a pool of European experts to develop this methodology. The socio-economic goal includes linking safety, environment and mobility in the global agenda and evaluating the ways to extend the socio-economic benefits of improved road networks.

The future of the European road transportation infrastructure is a culmination of all of these aims, and a partnership between private and public is “necessary to continue bettering the products and technologies which we apply to the road infrastructure, so that users can always be confident the best products are at their service.”

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ASPHALT

Mike Acott, President of the US’ National Asphalt Pavement Association tells EU Infrastructure how breakthrough technologies in asphalt could help lower greenhouse gas emissions.

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sphalt pavement infrastructure is vast in scale. Of the 2.6 million miles of paved roads in the United States, for example, over 94 percent are surfaced with asphalt.

Approximately 85 percent of the US’s airfield pavements and parking lots are also surfaced with this material and because of its extensive use, small changes in technology can make a big difference in greenhouse gas emissions.

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If you look at a cross section of any asphalt pavement, you can see crushed stone particles of various sizes. These particles are held together by a mortar of asphalt cement (glue) and fine particles. These materials are combined in a manufacturing facility. The aggregate is dried and mixed with the asphalt cement binder. Typically, the composition of the mix is about five percent asphalt cement and 95 percent stone, sand and gravel by weight. How the material is manufactured and the ingredients

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used in the mix are key to understanding the opportunities for reducing greenhouse gases.

The asphalt pavement industry is on the verge of several major advances in asphalt pavement technology that have the potential to transform the environmental impact of the paving industry. The breakthrough technologies are warm-mix asphalt, reuse/recycling, Perpetual Pavement, and porous asphalt.

Warm-mix asphalt Warm-mix technologies allow for production and placement of asphalt pavement material at lower temperatures than conventional

Mike Acott technologies. Running warm-mix can reduce energy consumption during the manufacturing of the asphalt pavement mixture by an average of 20 percent. This equates to a one million ton reduction in greenhouse gases.

Since 2004, implementation has proceeded with virtually no complications. Several government bodies have been very receptive to the use of warm-mix, and agencies such as the US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the labour unions are fully engaged with warm-mix .

Warm-mix also makes it possible to increase the rates of reuse/recycling even further. Research on this topic could be helpful in speeding the rate of acceptance, but funding will also be needed both for emissions studies and for monitoring of long-term pavement performance.

Reuse and recycling

“The asphalt pavement industry is on the verge of several major advances that have the potential to transform the environmental impact of the paving industry”

The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has been widespread for about 30 years. In fact, every year, more than 100 million tons of asphalt pavement material is reclaimed across the globe and virtually all of it is reused or recycled into new pavements. A singular quality of asphalt cement in old pavement is that it can be completely rejuvenated in the recycling process. It becomes an integral part of the binder. This is referred to as the highest and best use. No other pavement material has this unique quality.

In view of the high reuse/recycling rate in many states and evidence that the quality of asphalt pavements incorporating RAP is equal to or better than pavements using all virgin materials, there is a great opportunity to double the quantity of recycled asphalt pavement used within five years.

For asphalt pavement, it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions simply by incorporating recycled asphalt in new pavement and in the US specifically we estimate that we have 18 billion tons of asphalt pavement already in place on America’s roads and highways. Because of the ability to reuse and recycle this material indefinitely, our existing roadways are a resource for future generations.

Perpetual Pavement Perpetual Pavement is the name given to an asphalt pavement that is designed not to fail. Construction is in layers whose properties serve a combination of different functions; they all add up to an extraordinarily long-lasting pavement. Surface distresses may occur eventually, but they do not penetrate deep into the pavement’s structure. Routine

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maintenance involves infrequent milling of the top layer for recycling, then placing a smooth, quiet, durable, safe new overlay. A Perpetual Pavement never needs to be completely removed and replaced. In the world of pavements, this is the ultimate in economic and environmental sustainability.

Perpetual Pavements can mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both now and for generations to come. Perpetual Pavements reduce greenhouse gas production several ways. Since only the surface is renewed, the base structure stays in place, thereby significantly reducing greenhouse gases associated with acquisition of virgin raw materials, production of pavement material and the placement of the pavement on the road or highway. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with complete removal and replacement of pavements that have reached the end of their useful life is avoided. Taking a long view – 100 years or more – building Perpetual Pavements is a highly sustainable practice.

Porous and open-graded asphalt pavements Porous and open-graded asphalt pavements have been shown to have a dramatic beneficial effect on water quality. These pavements have been used widely for over 30 years with an excellent record of success.

Open-graded pavement is made with same-size rocks, creating a web of interlocking pores that allow water to flow through the surface.

Open-graded pavements are used mainly in two types of applications. First, open-graded friction courses are widely used for surfacing roads and highways. The pavement layer directly beneath this is impermeable. During a rainstorm, instead of pooling on the surface or bouncing off it, rain drains through the surface and out to the sides. Splash and spray are greatly reduced, enhancing safety. Secondly, porous pavement systems are stormwater management tools with an open-graded surface over a stone recharge bed. The system is designed and constructed to collect stormwater, which then infiltrates into the ground.

Porous asphalt surfaces allow roads to function as linear stormwater management systems and porous car parks will store stormwater, reduce runoff, promote infiltration and groundwater recharge, allow evaporative

cooling of the atmosphere, diminish erosion on banks, reduce particulates in stream water after storms and improve water quality.

Asphalt for sustainability The asphalt pavement industry has worked for the past three decades to create and deploy these sustainable technologies. Three major environmental goals – conservation of natural resources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and improvements in water quality – are not only achievable, they are already being achieved.

The potential benefits to the environment and the economy are clear, and the challenge to the industry and its customers is now to ramp up the implementation of these green pavement technologies. At NAPA specifically we are not only working actively with our partners in governmental agencies and academia to advance asphalt’s green agenda, but we recently testified before US Congress to ask for a major research program to help push deployment out onto our streets, roads, highways, runways and parking lots. However, in the US we can say that, regardless of getting funding from Congress or not, NAPA, along with the rest of the global industry must continue to pave the way to a sustainable future.

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT

A green store of great value Nynas Bitumen’s Steve Harris explains how one of the most sustainable of all construction materials has always been beneath our feet and the wheels of our vehicles.

Asphalt has high sustainability credentials, higher than any other paving material, despite containing oil-based products. Despite its predominately black colour (although for years it has been available in almost any hue), asphalt has always been relatively ‘green’ in an environmental sense. Now as a result of efforts across the asphalt sector, it is getting greener still.

The recognition that sustainability has to govern the world’s approach to how its raw materials are used is forcing fresh appraisals of all construction materials and techniques.

But all industries are still struggling towards definitions of what precisely sustainability should mean for them; early blunt measures like carbon content are being jettisoned for more sophisticated approaches recognising that sustainability has social and economic, as well as environmental, implications.

For roads and other paved surfaces this includes making roads and the products that go into their creation as environmentally friendly as possible. This is being done through all the measures that would be expected, such as careful design, development of longer lasting new products, and continuously lowering emissions in the manufacturing stages. There have been numerous examples of sustainability improvements over the years from both the individual company level and from across industry co-operation.

The social and economic factors that enter the sustainability equation include recognising that roads are needed for efficient operation of modern economies, that they permit a multitude of other environmentally beneficial activities to take place.

The problem in coming up with a definition of sustainability and just what targets manufacturers and contractors should aim

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at can be seen in the lack of agreement on which parameters should be included in a sustainability assessment, and the relative weighting to give to the environmental, social and economic factors. There are sometimes conflicting pressures – within the European community there are national governments calling for major reductions in carbon emissions as strategic goals, with local authorities placing more value on social aspects.

The asphalt sector focus, up until now, has been on developing more environmentally friendly products. Among the technical advances made in recent years are quieter road surfaces, more durable surfaces, low temperature asphalts, skid resistant surfacing and

“The asphalt sector focus, up until now, has been on developing more environmentally friendly products” cold mix designs already allow a reduction of some 30 percent in the energy used in manufacturing and the industry will continue to improve on that. And, as climate change occurs, products better able to cope with particular conditions are already available.

It is now possible to take advantage of the temperatures generated on road surfaces by the sun to heat water. There are existing development projects where water stored in tanks under roads can be heated by sunlight, cutting CO2 emissions by 50 percent compared to conventional heating systems, minimising the use of environmentally damaging salt to combat icy roads. Environmental concerns are possibly the most important but not the only parameter to define sustainability.

The most obvious sustainability plus is that asphalt and the bitumen that coats most of it is infinitely recyclable – no asphalt product need ever be sent to landfill, and it can easily be re-used over and over again as it will always have a value because of its stone and bitumen content. The technology to use recycled material is well understood, readily available and proven on numerous projects.

So all of the asphalt currently in use across the world can be looked on as a store of value for future generations.

There are other sustainability related factors to consider when choosing between asphalt and an alternative surfacing material, and when choosing between different asphalt products. For example, asphalt scores very high on durability measures and it is known that extra upfront investment can bring the benefits of long life pavements. These will use hot mix asphalts, but the extra years of in service life far outweigh the energy used and emissions generated.

Steve Harris is a civil engineer who originally studied concrete technology and soil mechanics.

However, during his 30-year career within the construction industry he has specialised in asphalt engineering, including pavement design and bitumen technology.

Over the last 10 years he has branched into marketing, now working as the Product Strategy Manager for Nynas Bitumen. In this role Harris is responsible for co-ordinating product related strategic development across Nynas’ European business.

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Linking technology to land management Stig Enemark, President of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), explains the importance of suitable infrastructure and sustainable land administration systems for the future wellbeing of land tenure, value, use and development.

Sustainability is a key component of land policies and land administration institutions. In your opinion, which technologies play a key role here and why?

Stig Enemark. The management and administration of land is a crucial issue.

Land administration systems (LAS) provide the infrastructure for implementation of land policies and land management strategies in support of sustainable development. The infrastructure includes institutional arrangements, legal frameworks, processes, standards, land information, management and dissemination systems, and technologies required to support allocation, land markets, valuation, control of use and development of interests in land.

The key technologies in support of land administration systems can be divided into GIS tools and modern measurement tools. Modern GIS tools sup-

port e-Government in terms of designing and implementing suitable spatial data infrastructures and implementing a suitable IT architecture for organising spatial information that can improve the communication between administrative systems and also establish more reliable data due to the use the original data instead of copies.

In recent years the discussion has very much focused on these issues of geo-information while the development of positioning technologies has perhaps not received the recognition that it deserves. In coming years, positioning infrastructure will become the fifth infrastructure after water, transport, energy and telecommunications. This positioning infrastructure will increasingly be seen as a critical component for achieving sustainable development in terms of the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

How is technology development changing the face of the spatial information world? How are new technologies revolutionising traditional surveying disciplines?

SE. I focus here on positioning infrastructures. The primary components of the positioning infrastructure are the GNSS satellite constellations themselves, GPS being the best known to the public. GNSS could be considered as one of the only truly global infrastructures, in that the base level of quality and accessibility is constant across the globe. A stand-alone GNSS receiver has a typical accuracy of a few metres and under the wrong conditions, accuracy can be worse than 10 metres. Therefore, many GNSS users require improved accuracy or improved reliability with many requiring both.

“Information about land and land market processes that can be derived from effective LAS plays a critical role in all economies” Improving accuracy and reliability requires so-called ‘augmentation systems’ using ground infrastructure such as Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS). Modern positioning infrastructure (including both GNSS and CORS) can be grouped into three main categories: geodetic datum in support of surveying and mapping activities; stable geodetic reference frame for precise measurement and monitoring of global processes, such as those associ-

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ated with climate change and disaster risk management; extension to the concept of a true infrastructure that underpins the explosion in industrial and mass market use of positioning technology such as interactive road maps and other real-time positioning.

What role is GNSS technology playing in particular?

SE. Land administration has evolved to become the core component of land management that includes the functions of land tenure systems, land valuation and taxation, land-use planning and land development. These functions are supported by comprehensive and updated land information organised through the concept of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).

This has changed and extended the role of geodetic datum accordingly, GNSS technology being the Stig Enemark main tool. Recent trends have seen the emergence of more efficient and cost effective solutions for cadastral and other surveys. These can often be enabled only by GNSS/GPS and its ability to work directly in the geodetic datum.

The growing use and propagation of CORS based on GNSS has enabled a revolution in the ability to measure and monitor global processes, for example, changes in sea level due to global warming; prediction of greenhouse gas concentrations or ozone depletion; changes in the planet’s overall water storage; assisting disaster monitoring and management including earthquakes, tsunamis and floods. These issues represent the key challenges of the new millennium.

The ideal way to transport the data required in modern real-time precise positioning is to link the positioning infrastructure to a modern telecommunications infrastructure (broadband internet and wireless mobile phone technologies based on internet protocols). This will tentatively revolutionise the space-based data.

What place does imagery have in the surveying profession? How is this developing?

SE. In many countries the role of national mapping agencies are changing into providing core datasets rather than map series. Traditional topographic maps are then replaced by databases available for various applications to be designed and marketed by private business. In the professional world, such as the surveying profession, images play a key role in terms of integrating data from various sources and for a range of purposes.

Modern technologies have changed the use of satellite images and photogrammetry. They have changed both the way of producing maps and even how images are used for monitoring land use changes, environmental degradation and preventing natural disasters, for example. The use of modern photogrammetry in surveying work depends, of course, on the work that individual surveyors are doing. They offer advanced tools to those surveyors that are involved in planning or geo-business.

More generally, the concept provided by Google Earth and similar web products has changed the perception of images to be something available at your fingertips. The full impact of this invention is still to be seen.

In your opinion, what is the future direction for geospatial technology? What are your focus areas for 2009/2010?

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SE. The current situation is dominated by the financial crisis. Of course it affects the surveying discipline and geospatial industry throughout the world, but it also presents opportunities for the surveying profession in terms of arguing for the need and benefit of having sustainable cadastral infrastructures and land governance serving as a backbone for mortgage and systems for complex property commodities. Until the last couple of years, the developed world often took land administration for granted and paid little attention to it. However, the recent global economic collapse has sharply focused world attention on mortgage policies and processes and their related complex commodities, as well as on the need for adequate and timely land information.

Simply put, information about land and land market processes that can be derived from effective LAS plays a critical role in all economies.

Another opportunity is in the building of public infrastructures that are likely to be initiated as an incentive to boost the economy. This would be money well spent, giving the economy a boost and giving profits in the coming years.

To summarise the FIG agenda for the next couple of years, the key challenges of the new millennium are climate change; food shortage; energy scarcity; urban growth, environmental degradation; and natural disasters.

These issues are all related to land governance and are going to be the core area for surveyors; the land professionals. To effectively deal with this requires high-level geodesy to create the models that can predict future changes and modern surveying and mapping tools that can control implementation of new physical infrastructure and provide the basis for the building of national spatial data infrastructures. Sustainable land administration systems that can manage the core functions of land tenure, land value, land use and land development as well as facilitate a ‘spatial-enabled society’ will be the key issue for the coming years.

ABOUT FIG FIG is an international non-governmental organisation that gathers professionals from government, local authorities and the private sector to discuss technology and professional issues with researchers and academics. This multi-stakeholder approach brings people together whose joint knowledge can benefit the development of the geospatial industry.

FIG is promoting the concept of a ‘spatial-enabled society’, where a government uses ‘place’ as the key means of organising information related to activities ranging from health, transportation and the environment to immigration, taxation and defence, and when location and spatial information are available to citizens and businesses to support these activities

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Tracking progress Eskil Sellgren explains how the rail network has the potential to become a key sustainable transport solution.

ESKIL SELLGREN

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veryone needs to re-think and increase their focus on sustainability and resource efficiency. There are many incentives for this change, such as the on-going and ever more noticeable climatic changes, market changes and revisions in legislation and regulations.

Half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Seen from a sustainability perspective, and contrary to common belief, a city is a useful geographic system. The city creates opportunities for efficient and optimised solutions that reduce environmental impact, such as the release of greenhouse gases.

A composite housing stock, the possibility of increased residential density, energyefficient transportation and communication are some of the advantages that cities have from a sustainability perspective. Cities also offer rich opportunities for trading, social contacts, development of ideas, knowledge and skills, and of course for making a living.

Regional planning is the city’s grammar, and its social and economical aspects are its flow and pulse. Yet to be truly sustainable, they must be competitive, attractive and efficient at the same time. One universal ambition must be low emissions of greenhouse gases, achieving and maintaining social welfare, providing a solid governance base for a fair sharing of costs and revenues, avoiding segregation and releasing social potentials.

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With good communications people can easily get to work, home and to leisure activities. Good communications imply that businesses can deliver goods and services in a cost-effective manner as well. The reliability of the transport system influences the whole society. The driving forces are often political with the objective to reduce pollution, traffic congestion and the risk of climate change.

There is a huge opportunity for the rail sector to develop a much more compelling case for sustainability within the industry.

The rail sector can play a powerful role in mitigating the negative impacts of current transport systems, but it will have to

“There is a huge opportunity for the rail sector to develop a much more compelling case for sustainability within the industry” improve its own environmental, social and economic performance if it is to become a key sustainable transport solution.

Aviation and private car use are currently taking the brunt of the sustainability critique, but are also starting to respond at both company and sector level. Rail currently has a relatively better sustainability profile than most other transport modes, but this position could be eroded, leaving the sector vulnerable to future challenges.

The City Line in Stockholm, a €1.5 billion rail-tunnel project with two railway tracks running beneath Central Stockholm and two new stations, is an example of a modern way

to solve the transport problems in a big city.

It is being built with a view to the needs of the 2030s.

The vision is that by that time, Sweden will be well on the way towards achieving an ecologically, socially, culturally and economically sustainable transport system. It will be easier to make day trips for business purposes between the major towns and cities, and by then the Swedish rail network will also be connected to the rail network serving the rest of Europe.

Rail passenger transport will be so developed in terms of capacity and frequency of services that it will give people the chance to commute to and from work over an even greater area than at present.

Furthermore, by 2030 effective rail connections and terminals for goods will have been created, which will improve the opportunities for transport on the railways.

The City Line has an important role to play in this vision. It will allow full advantage to be taken of the investments that have already been made in the region. The City Line is also a precondition for the investments that are being planned to improve rail traffic in Stockholm and the rest of the country. All investments in improving the railway network – both those already introduced and those planned – will help to develop a transport system that is sustainable in the long term and reduces the pressure on the environment.

Eskil Sellgren is the Deputy Managing Director for WSP Sweden, with 2200 staff in Sweden and 10,000 staff in the WSP Group plc. WSP plays a leading role in major transport and infrastructure initiatives for governments and transport organisations worldwide in both the public and private sectors. Sellgren is the Deputy Chairman of Nordic Road Association as well as board member of WSP Finland, but also active in the Swedish initiative Re-thinking Construction, FIA.

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UP TO SPEED Railways created a transport revolution in the 19th Century. As trains and lines get faster and more sophisticated, are we on the verge of a new leap forward? ll across Europe our roadways are clogged with traffic suffering from large populations that they were simply not built to support.

In nations like the US, where many major highways were constructed long before modern technology was available to support such wear and tear, the situation is critical. Coupled with this, air travel is no longer the glamorous experience it once was.

Crowded airports, flight delays and onerous security checks all conspire to make flying more chore than pleasure.

In light of such conditions, the idea that we need smart transportation systems

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that equal the needs of the 21st Century is firmly upon us and, as a result, the concept of high-speed rail is sparking renewed interest.

High-speed rail may not be technically new, but with a new interest coming from nations such as the US and Britain, it rail is taking on a fresh and exciting dynamic.

Currently in the UK for example the only evidence of any high-speed rail is the 109km rail link to the Channel Tunnel, which, critics say, just isn’t enough. The argument is that, quite frankly, there is no reason why highspeed rail can’t be done on a massive scale in Britain, the country that not only invented the railways but, through High Speed One,

already has a state-of-the-art high speed line (even if it is comparatively short and fails to connect any major UK cities). But if Britain, or the US for that matter, really is to implement a high-speed network, it surely has a long way to go. In fact, as President Obama himself said in a recent statement, “I know that this vision has its critics. There are those who say high-speed rail is a fantasy. But its success around the world says otherwise.”

In response to this, EU Infrastructure examines some of Europe’s successful highspeed rail networks in order to see what lessons nations who are seeking to improve their own networks can learn from them.

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FRANCE

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he fi rst TGV service in France was launched in 1981 between Paris and Lyon, cutting the journey time between the two cities to under two hours.

Since then the network has been massively extended, fi rst to include a line between Lyon and Marseilles, and then new lines from Paris to Lille in the north, Alsace in the east and Le Mans going west. Today France's TGV network is nearly 2000 km in length, which is almost as large as Japan's leading network, and four lines are currently being built simultaneously, totalling over 640km in length, all due for completion by 2015.

It was actually President Sarkozy who accelerated the high-speed programme as a key point of his fi scal stimulus plan back in December 2008. At the time, he told a press conference: "It is certain we are not wrong doing this. Mobility is a need and the boss of SNCF, who is here, won't disagree." That boss is Guillame Pepy, but in contrast to Sarkozy's defiance, Pepy has noted several mistakes in the planning of the network. One of the biggest, he says, was not building the Paris-Lyon line as a four-track railway from the outset because, as is happening now in Japan with the Tokyo to Osaka line, the TGV line is now nearing saturation point. As a result planning is now underway for a second line between the two conurbations.

Nonetheless, as the French high-speed network continues to be built out and become interconnecting with neighbouring countries, it appears that a series of me a reality. In fact, plans 'Trans-European Networks' could become show that the Paris to Lille and the Channel Tunnel lines will soon link through, via Brussels, into the new Dutch high-speed line up to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, cutting the journey time between Paris and Amsterdam to a mere two hours. Further to this, extensions to the Lyon to Marseilles line that are currently under construction (or in the planning stages) include plans to go south-east from Marseilles toward Nice and ultimately through to Italy, southh toward Montpellier (through a 17-milee a, tunnel under the Pyrenees) to Barcelona, and easterly to Turin, Italy to join up withh the North Italian high-speed network.

The interesting thing about TGV is that at as its popularity has soared it has been paralleled by a willingness from the French authorities to help pay for the investment. In fact, only two percent of the cost of the original Paris to Lille line was paid for by local authorities, and by contrast the current Le Mans to Rennes line is covered by 39 percent by local authorities, showing a much greater cover over time. However, the TGV does still face a series of challenges.

Outside of Paris, for example, there are currently only 18 TGV stations for the entire network. That means that there are currently no stops for medium or even some large towns, and research shows that, despite some people arguing otherwise, it is not the case that high-speed rail requires there to be few stations and only city-tocity services. In fact, evidence suggests that intermediate stations are, if suitably engineered, entirely consistent with the highest speed end-to-end running.

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ITALY

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he Italians actually implemented high-speed rail three years before the French by opening a line from Rome to Florence in 1978. Now, 31 years later, the line has been extended north and south to form a nearly complete network from Milan to Naples via Bologna, Florence and Rome. The last major section, which is due to open later this year, will link Florence to Bologna and will include an impressive near-50 miles of tunnels, nine individual tunnels in all, to get the line through the Apennines, halving the existing journey time to just 30 minutes. In addition, a north-west to north-east line is also at various stages of operation, planning and construction, aiming to link Turin, Milan, Verona, Venice and Trieste by 2016.

From 2011, a competitor service will be set up in Italy that will also run on the Milan to Rome line. According to Boston Consulting Group study of a recent survey of 13,000 pan-European distance travellers from 13 countries, more than 30 percent of passengers would like to switch modes, and in some countries that proportion is actually as high as 65 percent. As the report says: “Considering the size of the market this presents a huge opportunity for alternative providers, particularly given the fact that by 2020 passengers will be able to travel faster from A to B via high-speed rail than by plane on nearly half of Europe's busiest air routes.�

Similarly to France there are still challenges that are facing the Italian network. While the location of Rome's city-centre station, for example, proves to be the network's greatest advantage in terms of city-centre business, it is also the network's biggest disadvantages in terms of fast, convenient access by car and public transport for those with further to go. In other words, it is those operators that can provide the most seamless door-to-door journey across multiple modes, usually by working with other companies, who will have an obvious advantage.

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pain entered the high-speed era back in 1992 when it opened the Madrid-Seville line. Today Spain is considered as the most ambitious country across Europe in terms of growth of a high-speed network. With its most recent completion of the Madrid to Barcelona line, Spain now boasts an impressive 1600km of high-speed rail in operation. Further to this, there is both another 2200km under construction and 1700km in the planning stages.

The network is also growing outside of the Spanish borders, with a key construction project currently working to connect the Spanish and French networks. As a result of this, an intense debate is now underway to decide whether the new line will carry freight and passenger traffic, or just passenger. But the most notable feature of Spain's highspeed rail has to be the sheer scale and rapidity of its development, especially considering Spain is a country without an especially strong railway tradition. Nonetheless, the growth has been immense. Back in 2005, for example, the Spanish Government published a national high-speed plan with a target to build 10,000 km of line by 2020, connecting all of the nation's capitals, accounting for 90 percent of the population. The proposal also estimated that the cost will be met from allocating 1.5 percent of the GDP to national infrastructure investment. With a budget of 250 billion euros, half of that will go to rail. In fact, this year alone Spain will be spending a massive total of 10 billion euros on rail infrastructure investment, with six billion going to high-speed rail. By comparison the UK has an 11.5 billion euro budget for capacity enhancement for the next five years.

What's more, the Madrid to Barcelona line, which only opened last February, offering riders a journey time of two hours and 38 minutes for the 592km journey, has now cut that journey time to two hours and 15 minutes. When the service opened it only had 16 percent of the combined train and air market, now it holds 48 percent and expectations are that this will rise to 70 percent, which aligns with other lines such as those from London to Paris and Brussels.

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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Long train running Frank Walenberg explains how more legislation from Europe is having an effect on the railway products market and details how this change is going to impact the future of the industry.

What can you tell us about the impact that increased European legislation is having on the railway product market?

Frank Walenberg. The impact currently is very large, and what’s more, it is still growing. Firstly certain components must comply with European directives in general, and then under the interoperability directives, a number of components must comply there as well to specific railway requirements. In addition, complete systems like infrastructure systems must comply with European directives as well. There is no way around it.

Then, apart from European and national legislation, certification is also undertaken on a voluntary basis thanks to agreements made by manufacturers and clients. This means that clients can establish the specification that your suppliers’ products and processes have to meet.

Then, as a supplier, you have to be able to show that you meet these standards.

In effect, we depend very much on European legislation and that obviously has a very important impact on us.

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So how are your products helping those in the industry to understand the specific requirements that the railway system have to meet?

FW. I think there’s two ways. One is through a very formal way, which covers the fact that these certain certificates have to be issued. They are

mandatory; they must be done. That’s one way, but the other way is, of course, in the many different phases we assist in, in not only having the certificates, because that’s our verification, but also in integrating the components and the subsystems into the railway system. So we provide verification, through testing and in discussions with authorities, to put the equipment into operation. We also assist in integration testing and things like that.

Then, within the voluntary domain, co-operating railway companies have established rules in the UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins de fer) for the application of voluntary certification. It is expected that these rules, which align with the OTIF (International treaty for the exchange of rolling stock between railways) will soon be split into rules for technical acceptance and rules for exploitation.

Then the products and processes involved in technical acceptance will have to be certified on a mandatory basis, while for exploitation, voluntary certification should prove to be sufficient.

And how are the notable trends within the fields of safety, reliability, and availability shaping the future of the industry?

FW. I think the biggest change that we will see in the future is that Europe is likely to play an even more important role in the market than it does already. So many of the things already associated with these interoperability directives will also come under the safety directives that are gradually being applied to the market.

For instance the requirements for safety assessment, up until now, are more or less undefined, but they are now becoming more defined through the European rules. Subsequently, as the number of European requirements also increases, we now see a large number of these items growing and the importance and the influence from Europe is growing with it. n

Frank Walenberg is the Director of Kema Rail Transport Certification, the notified body for mandatory and voluntary certification of all railway products and systems in the Netherlands, which performs certification, assessment and verification under European directives and European rules for interoperability.

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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

The high life Daniël Eijgendaal answers our questions on security in the aviation industry, and tells us what the future holds.

Having an organizational level that meets the demands of complex logistics is key to airport success. What are the risks associated with a design that fails to do this?

Daniël Eijgendaal. In all our projects we aim to identify, specify and implement, the technical infrastructure that best supports the objectives and processes of our clients. In our designs technology always plays a role. Technology, simple or complex, is however only a means to an end. When designs fail to fully support the processes, the people involved have to fill the gap. It is interesting to see how the flexibility of motivated and trained staff can compensate for less than perfect facilities and systems. Obviously there are limits to what even the best people can do. On the other hand, supporting such staff with properly designed systems and infrastructure will really allow them to shine and make big improvements in efficiency and level of service. Airports that consistently get high marks from passengers always have the combination of great staff and well-designed facilities and systems.

How has the issue of airport security intensified over the last 10 years? What has this increased focus meant for your business?

DE. The aviation industry has responded to a series of incidents by introducing stricter checks, both of passengers and their baggage, and of staff and goods. Examples are mandatory baggage screening as required in the EU from 2003 and the tightened regulations on carrying liquids gels and aerosols in hand luggage. These measures, and the changed perception of threats, have spurred innovation and necessitated system upgrades on many airports.

Incorporating new technologies in existing airports and ensuring these security measures don’t impact operations and efficiency has been, and we expect will continue to be, a factor in many projects. Equally important

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is that it has helped us to differentiate our role as consultant from that of suppliers and contractors. We look at the bigger picture, at our clients’ real operational needs, not just at systems and equipment. But by making sure our consultants are fully aware of what is available in the market we can translate those operational needs into practical designs. We bring concepts to life.

With advanced technical possibilities, the impact of an airport on the environment can now be significantly reduced. What are you doing to promote environmentally conscious airport designs?

DE. Many of our clients are committed to reduce the environmental impact of their airport. Often they find it difficult to translate their ambitions into practical, and economically sound, measures. The built environment is a major energy user worldwide and airports are no exception.

We find we can really help our clients in this area. It is often surprising to see how much can be achieved with standard measures. Reductions in total energy consumption of between 15 percent and 50 percent are possible without having to use advanced technologies. In many projects we use rating systems like LEED or BREEAM. Even where these systems don’t fit the local conditions or standards they help to get all project partners aligned and improve team and stakeholder communication.

What are some of the recent projects have you been involved with? What can you tell us about the technologies currently being optimized in modern-day airport management systems?

DE. Some recent projects include new terminal buildings in Sofia (Bulgaria), Cairo (Egypt) and Gabarone (Botswana). A major current project is the new midfield terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport (UAE). In our home market we have a continuous stream of projects at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, a client with a clear

vision on continuous process improvement and sustainable design. We have been, or still are, involved in large and small projects in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Russia and Gibraltar.

In many of the terminal building projects IT infrastructure and information and management systems are an important part of our scope of work. Information Technology has been a key driver in bringing down operating cost of airlines and this is reflected in modern airport terminal designs. The Simplifying the Business (StB) initiative is at the core of this.

What do you think the future trends for the aviation industry are likely to be? What challenges are associated with such trends?

DE. Two major drivers in the industry in the last decade have been increased security and cost reduction. We expect these factors to continue. The challenge is to ensure increased security, with all the additional equipment required to achieve that, assists in improving (operational) efficiency. Opportunities definitely exist to achieve this, think of combining biometric ID documents with internet based reservation systems. Using technology to create a seamless travel experience for the passenger whilst at the same time reduce cost for the stakeholders and improve security becomes a real possibility.

And although the current economic crisis and low oil prices mean energy efficiency general and sustainability in general are not first on peoples’ minds, we are convinced this will change very quickly. Running a sustainable business, minimizing carbon emissions, will be an equally strong driver in the next decades.

Daniël Eijgendaal is member of the Board of Directors of Deerns Consulting Engineers and Manager of the Airports Department. He has an in-depth knowledge of aeronautical systems (CNS), airfield lighting, airport management and information systems.

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AIRPORT FOCUS

In the hot seat

Robert O’Meara, Communications Manager at the European airport trade association ACI EUROPE, answers our questions.

ACI EUROPE, which is based in Brussels, Belgium, represents the interests of over 400 airports in 46 countries. ACI is the only worldwide professional association of airport operators and the European division accounts for over 90 percent of commercial air traffic in the region.

What’s more it boasts some impressive figures, having in 2007, for which the latest figures are available, member airports welcoming 1.47 billion passengers and handling 17.4 million metric tonnes of cargo and 20.8 million aircraft movements.

In addition, ACI EUROPE also promotes the exchange of industry

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know-how through internal committee structures and an extensive schedule of conferences and exhibitions. Through the organisation’s efforts to actively seek out the views of airport members, ACI EUROPE generates comprehensive common policies that serve as a reference to the entire aviation industry. “What we do is work on a day-to-day basis with the institutions of the European Union, the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) and the European Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL),” explains Robert O’Meara, Communications Manager at ACI EUROPE.

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What impact is the current downturn having on airports across Europe?

Robert O’Meara. This is the biggest crisis we’ve seen for a very long time. This is bigger than the effects of 9/11, it’s bigger than SARS and it’s bigger than any recent crisis we have experienced. In fact, the fall in traffic over the course of this year will probably add up to something the equivalent of 10 times what happened after 9/11, which is just huge. We have just released our traffic report for May, which has seen something of a relapse.

April was an improvement (still negative at minus 4.8 percent), primarily because Easter fell during that month, but for May, air passenger traffic is back down to minus 9.1 percent.

Through this recession there are three things that all airports are having to deal with. Obviously we are finding that less passengers on flights and less flights overall equates to less aeronautical revenue; but, as well as that, less passengers going through the terminal means less commercial revenue as well. Then, to make matters worse, the price of capital investment for infrastructure has shot through the roof.

Of course, capital intensive businesses are suffering in general, but airports are struggling in particular. At the same time, you then have very keen awareness of the climate change issue that is choosing very visible targets, such as the aviation industry.

As far back as the 1970s, European airports sought to address their impact on the environment. Proactive environmental management has not only become standard practice but a must for any airport, encompassing issues such as noise, biodiversity, air and water quality. While the focus has mainly been on local environmental impact, an increasing number of airports are now looking at addressing their impact on climate change. Several individual airports operators have already developed plans to reduce their carbon emissions, with AVINOR in Norway and LFV Swedish airports having already achieved carbon neutrality for airport operations under their direct control.

In June 2008 the General Assembly of ACI EUROPE adopted a landmark resolution on climate change, whereby European airports committed to reduce their carbon emissions, with the ultimate goal of becoming carbon neutral. The resolution also committed ACI EUROPE to develop, within a year, a Europe-wide accreditation programme providing airports with the tool to work on their commitment to reduce CO2 from their operations.

“Aviation is a prominent and emotive sector that is also a bellweather for national and international economic growth”

In what ways are European airport operators using technology to improve their operations? What do you consider to be the biggest recent advances?

RO’M. We are using technology to improve our operations, that’s true; for starters there are enormously elaborate robotic systems within baggage handling and also we have iris recognition software and hardware that is now being used more and more frequently for accessing airport sites, or, in some cases, for security and border control.

As airport operators are faced with both catering for increased demand for air travel as well as minimising environmental impact, how is it possible to balance these seemingly competing priorities?

RO’M. No question, aviation is a prominent and emotive sector that GOING DOWN is also a bellweather for national and international economic growth. Such The global financial crisis is having a major impact on passenger numbers across prominence naturally carries responsiEurope. Figures from May 2009 show a drop of 8.3 percent from a year ago. Not even bilities, in particular in relation to the the biggest operators are immune. environment. Believe it or not, the aviation sector as a whole is working together to achieve environmental wins.

A lot of work is being undertaken at the moment by aircraft manufacturers, airlines and air traffic controllers in terms of looking at composite construction, biofuels and operational efficiencies.

As the face of aviation on the ground, airports are doing everything possible to make sure that when the aeroplane is on the ground, it’s working as efficiently as possible.

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Electrical ground vehicles are also something that more and more airports are adopting, and that falls in line with their environmental strategies. There are a number of different options on the market that can achieve this sort of thing, too: from hydrogen, to LPG, to electrical cars, to hybrids, and all of those are already in place at different airports across Europe. In some countries, it’s even more advanced than elsewhere. In Stockholm’s airport, for example, a very high percentage of airport-based vehicles are electric, including taxis.

Airports are very much like mini-cities. Because you have all of these different companies and all these different emissions sources, whatever’s happening on the outside world is often mirrored in the micro-site that is the airport and that is very interesting.

And finally, what do you believe the key priorities for Europe’s airport operators over the coming years?

RO’M. Well, obviously in the immediacy, it’s survival: staying profitable and surviving. But, because of the economic climate this year there will be losses, and, as we have already seen, a couple of airports have had to lay staff off. We’re quite literally operating in the shadow of our former industry and our priorities reflect this.

As I’ve already outlined, airports are regarding the environment and the issue of climate change as a key priority, in terms of operation, but also in terms of earning their license to grow.

That feeds into another key priority: Capacity. As EUROCONTROL recently reminded us with the third edition of its ‘Challenges’ report (Challenges of Growth (2008)), Europe is facing an airport capacity crunch that will see air traffic nearly double by 2030. At the moment, it looks like 19 airports will be seriously congested by then and that figure could rise substantially.

In addition, we are mindful of the issue of security. Before 9/11 security costs accounted for up to eight percent of operating costs at European airports. They currently account for around 35 percent of operating costs – an incredible rise. In the US, security is paid by the state, but in Europe, airports have to pay for it. At the moment the European Commission has a deadline to find a proposal for the removal of the ban on liquids, aerosols and gels. That deadline is April 2010, which although ambitious, ACI EUROPE is working with the EC and with the security technology companies to try to achieve it. while also ensuring that the agreed technological solutions are feasible on a grander scale both operationally and financially, in terms of deployment.

Then you also have connectivity across the globe – which is evolving at incredible speed. Take Dubai for instance. Dubai already has a very good airport capable of taking about 70 million passengers a year. But, the new, seperate one, which is currently under construction, will be capable of taking somewhere in the region of 130 million passengers a year – making it by-far-

and-away the biggest airport in the world. This is just one example of many and the concern is that because of the airport capacity crunch that Europe is facing and the absence of proper airport policies in a number of member states of the EU, Europe will, at least in terms of global connectivity, fall far behind.

TURNING THE AIR GREEN Air travel has long been one of the environmental movement’s biggest bogeymen. A new initiative hopes to change that perception.

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n June 2009, ACI Europe launched the Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme at its 19th Annual Congress. The programme will assess and recognise airports’ efforts to manage and reduce CO2 emissions within their direct control. It will also take into account their collaborative efforts with airlines, air traffic controllers, ground handlers and others on the airport site. The launch of the programme - which is voluntary - sees a total of 31 European airports applying to become Airport Carbon Accredited. More applicants are expected in the months ahead.

The scheme is comprised of four levels of accreditation – Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality, and will be administered by leading consultancy WSP Environmental and overseen by an independent Advisory Board made up of representatives of the European Commission, ECAC (European Civil Aviation Conference) and EUROCONTROL. Speaking about the scheme, then President of ACI Europe and CEO of Athens International Airport Dr Yiannis Paraschis, “In launching Airport Carbon Accreditation today, we are turning our commitment to reduce carbon emissions into concrete action. Airport Carbon Accreditation is a genuinely demanding, scientifically robust and institutionally-endorsed programme. The fact that we are doing this in the midst of the worst ever trading conditions speaks volumes about how serious we are about taking on the challenge of climate change.”

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AVIATION

IMPROVING THE INDUSTRY Roberto Kobeh González, President of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, outlines the prospects and issues of global civil aviation.

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hile tackling challenges has been the focus of our ongoing efforts to strengthen all aspects of air transport operations, recent events have shifted our focus towards dealing with more immediate issues. For example in 2007, the airline industry recorded its first profi t since 2000, as a result of a 19 percent improvement in fuel effi ciency and an 18 percent reduction in non-fuel costs. The future looked promising.

Then came the global financial crisis and higher fuel prices, pushing the industry back into the red. Many airlines have taken steps to counter the rapid increase in oil prices, reducing the workforce and contemplating mergers. Fortunately, fuel prices have begun to ease, but volatility in the marketplace and uncertainty around the health of the global economy make it difficult to predict what will happen.

However, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has formulated a medium-term forecast that points to an industry recovery in 2010. Financially airlines of ICAO member states post an operating loss for 2008 and profits in 2009 and 2010.

In relation to passenger traffic, growth will be lower than anticipated in earlier forecasts but recover in 2010. This outlook reaffirms the often proven resilience of the air transport industry and the fact that our overall challenge will be growth.

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Safety For the ICAO, finding new and innovative ways to further improve safety will remain our first priority. As the operational and regulatory context evolves, we will pursue a more comprehensive approach, which takes into account economic, social and geopolitical realities. It is a results and performancedriven strategy. We will tackle safety issues in an integrated fashion, going to the root of the problem and investing precious time and money where they are most effective in coming up with concrete and lasting results.

Our overall strategy is contained in the ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP). The GASP is a global strategy for aviation safety and provides a common frame of reference for all stakeholders, both government and industry. The GASP reflects an extraordinarily high level of co-operation with all major stakeholders, by incorporating the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap developed by the air transport industry, in co-operation with ICAO. The GASP, in conjunction with the Safety Roadmap, can guide national or regional safety teams on the implementation of best safety practices as well as a process

to assess their current status at a national or regional level and identify gaps that need to be addressed. It is a performance-based approach that focuses energies and resources on activities that provide the highest return for increasing safety.

Security Aviation security is another dimension of safety. Unlike safety, however, it is more difficult to manage. Persons can commit acts of unlawful interference anytime, anywhere, and for any reason. Governments have the difficult and unenviable task of balancing the need for maintaining and encouraging anti-terrorist vigilance, while putting in place workable security measures that do not compromise the efficiency of the air transport sector. The delicate nature of this exercise is compounded by the fact that considerable economic damage can occur even when terrorist plans are foiled.

ICAO’s Aviation Security Plan of Action adopted in February 2002, in wake of the events of 9/11, provides a series of programmes and activities designed to help states comply with ICAO security standards

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and procedures. The issuance of ICAO standard machine readable travel documents, especially ePassports enhanced with biometric identification, is an effective way of increasing the security of air travel.

In the long-term, we must diligently assess new and emerging threats, such as bacteriological and chemical weapons, manportable air defence systems (MANPADS) and the misuse of civil aircraft themselves as weapons of destruction. Our objection is to continually monitor and upgrade existing security processes to ensure that they are commensurate with the level of threat identified, while expediting the clearance of passengers and cargo at airports.

Air navigation Again, while it has become more difficult to forecast traffic growth over the next few years, we can certainly expect an increase in the number of aircraft flying the skies of the world. There will be a corresponding need for high performance air navigation systems to cope with the anticipated airspace congestion that will result. In some regions, congestion has already reached critical levels, affecting en route, terminal and aerodrome operations.

ICAO is actively supporting states implementation of initiatives described in the Global Air Navigation Plan that contribute to ensuring the safe, efficient and sustainable operation of the aviation system. Initiatives (PBN) provide tremendous benefits in terms of reduction in fuel use and CO2 emissions.

Our vision is for an interoperable and seamless global air traffic management (ATM) system, that applies to all users, during all phases of flight, and that meets agreed levels of safety, provides for optimum economic operations, is environmentally sustainable and meets national security requirements.

In September 2008, ICAO hosted the Forum on Integration and Harmonisation of NextGen and SASAR into the Global ATM Framework, in an effort to allow all stakeholders an opportunity to share knowledge about the future of ATM systems.

NextGen, the programme being developed by the United States and SESAR, Europe’s programme to meet its future aviation

needs, along with initiatives underway in other states must evolve within the framework provided by ICAO’s Global Air Traffic Management Operational Concept and Global Air Navigation Plan.

Environment Perhaps the most daunting challenge we face is helping to protect the environment.

The fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), confirms that climate change is real, much of it likely due to an increase in greenhouse gas concentration from human activity. Aviation is estimate to account for about two percent of human produced CO2, the major greenhouse gas.

Although aircraft today are about 70 percent more fuel efficient than they were 30 years ago and newer models like the Airbus 380 and Boeing 787 are even more efficient, projected increases in traffic will outpace our capacity to bring down greenhouse gas emissions from aviation. The solution lies in the development of a combination of technical, operational and market-based measures, under the leadership of ICAO as stipulated in Assembly Resolution A36-22.

In 2009, the ICAO will hold a number of important meetings on environmental protection, including two groundbreaking

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES The ICAO works to achieve its vision of safe, secure and sustainable development of civil aviation through co-operation amongst its member states. To implement this vision, the organisation has established the following strategic objectives for the period 2005-2010: 010:

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events on alternative fuels – a preparatory workshop in February and a full-fledged conference in November. This latest initiative, based on conclusive scientific research, underscores the view that the ultimate goal must be the elimination of carbon emission from aviation.

Long-term, the world aviation community will continue to develop the full range of options currently available – improved operational and technological measures and various market-based measures, such as emissions trading and carbon offsets.

Personnel To address all of these individual challenges effectively, and others that may later appear on the horizon, will require a corresponding highly skilled aviation workforce.

The problem is that in the next few years, there will be a massive wave of retirements from the current workforce. The growth of the industry in certain regions is not consistent with current training and capacity.

Moreover, an increasingly automated, dynamic and complex working environment is fundamentally reshaping the nature and relationships of safety-critical jobs. Pilots are becoming information managers in an extremely sophisticated glass cockpit; air traffic controllers who were used to an essentially manual activity have to adapt to a fully automated series of procedures; and mechanics identified with tool boxes are now involved in trend analysis and predictive maintenance.

That is not all. The quest for optimum safety goes beyond the men and women involved in the operational dimension of aviation, it also encompasses the equally complex discipline of aviation management.

Man Managers largely define, promote and help sust sustain the safety culture of their respective organisations. orga This has become increasingly challenging chal with the rapid and sustained growth grow in traffic and the no less rapid evolutio of high technology and its transformation tio on of all aspects of the workplace. In the tion tra ans transition between the old and the new way do of doing business, whether in operations or m in management, a delicate balance must be ach hi h achieved between the current set of skills and h those that will be needed in the future.

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ASK THE EXPERT

Ground control Leif Lindh explains why the Vikings buried their Ground Support Equipment (GSE) a long time ago.

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irports are caught in the middle of opposite dynamics: growing global demand for capacity, profitability and reducing the carbon footprint of operations.

At Combibox Systems of Sweden, we believe our in-ground support systems are a way to progress.

The in-ground approach The in-ground servicing of aircraft is actually not a new concept. In Sweden, Denmark and Norway this has been a common approach for well over 20 years.

The concept promotes the idea of service pits in the apron close to the aircraft service connection points. The services include the essential media that a parked aircraft needs on turnaround. This is 400Hz ground power, preconditioned air for cooling and heating, potable water, jet fuel and discharge of wastewater.

The concept allows for a clean apron relieved from cable clutter and mobile equipment and immediate point-of-use availability. We argue that this is the most efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly way of providing ground support.

The infrastructure investment creates a firm base of revenue with a low total cost of ownership for the airport enabling service charging.

The maintenance costs are a fraction of maintaining a fleet of mobile equipment and the airlines also benefit from lowering their turnaround cost. The point-of-use availability also enhances the service provided. The typical payback for the

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LEIF LINDH

investment is around 24 months.

Although the concept has been installed, not only in Scandinavia, but also worldwide since the early 1980s, a relatively small percentage of airports worldwide have opted for this solution.

Congestion During turnaround an airport planning manual typically shows 14 different vehicles circling the aircraft for various tasks and in reality there are even more support vehicles present.

The in-ground concept has not yet been internalised save for one of the support media namely jet fuel. Today hardly anyone would contend the fact that fuel hydrants are the way to provide jet fuel to an aircraft at a busy airport.

The thought of dispatching a large tanker truck bringing the fuel on the apron alongside the aircraft is immediately recognised as not so efficient and risky.

Now apparently it is not yet so natural to see the same for ground power, pre-conditioned air, potable water and wastewater. But the same argument can easily apply here.

Lowering emissions The in-ground system can replace diesel powered Ground Power Units (GPUs) or use of

the aircrafts own APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) for production of power and cooling.

If an aircraft uses only the APU running on jet fuel for the complete turnaround this results in yearly emissions of 520 tons of CO2 for just one gate. Using diesel powered GSE is better, but still generates some 90 tons of CO2 yearly for just one gate and for the supply of ground power alone.

To reduce these emissions airports could reduce fuel burn by supplying direct electricity connected to service pits. This still involves some indirect impact on the environment but it is substantially lower. According to the European Parliament Technology Assessment, the carbon footprint of using electricity is 300g per kWh. Using direct electricity with an in-ground system reduces the equivalent environmental impact to 32 tonnes per year and gate.

The same results can be shown for potable water and wastewater which is most commonly supplied with the use of trucks out on the apron, often running idle on diesel while servicing the aircraft. This implies tons of CO2 emissions while also introducing more trucks into the gate area on every turnaround.

We argue that the fixed installation of an inground system using service pits is the natural prolongation of the “green flight” starting with minimising jet fuel consumption in the air, flight planning and holding pattern minimising. Then taxiing on one engine to the gate. At the gate the turnaround is then provided by an in-ground system minimising the carbon footprint while parked for turnaround.

There is certainly a lot left to do in realising the eco-friendly airport of tomorrow and for those airports that have already begun this journey, our helmet is off to you.

Leif Lindh is the Director of Business Development at Combibox Systems Scandinavia.

He has a background in Systems Development and IT and joined Combibox in 2005. His main focus has been to transform the company into a knowledge based system supplier applying airport knowledge to ground support solutions.

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INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Jorn Rod-Larsen explains the importance of unified recording and air traffic safety – from voice logging to the big picture.

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or many years the Air Traffic Services Safety Regulations has required ATC units to record audio (both ground-to-air, ground-to-ground and telephony), and more recently record radar in order to support incident and accident investigations.

New regulations requiring the recording of even more communication sources are underway and ATC customers should evaluate whether their existing or new recording equipment is compliant and what extra costs the new regulations will impose for them.

also means that these decisions have to be made more quickly and accurately than previously. The smallest error can be fatal. Air traffic controllers are dependent on a system that eases and assists their daily task and decision-making process, giving them the big picture at any one time, as well as simple, reliable tools to check and document it. The work of investigating officers would also be greatly assisted if it were possible to see exactly what was presented to the controller, to hear what was said and to reconstruct the actions taken at the time of the incident under investigation.

Security and safety Air traffic security and passenger safety are paramount and only achieved through a multitude of hi-tech systems working together. One small but critical part of this big picture are record and replay systems.

Traditionally, these were voice-logging systems recorded on tape. In the event of an accident, incident or threat, tapes would be replayed and analysed, but their basic, manual nature meant their use was often limited and time consuming.

New technology and demands for speedy retrieval saw the introduction of digital recording and a new era in voice logging. Technological advancement in other areas of air traffic control, however, means that today’s decisions are based on greater available information from more individual sources than ever before. The sheer magnitude of air traffic

Improving ATC security and safety

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Voice logging to the big picture New regulations concerning the recording of background communications and screens are underway. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) stipulates that ‘Air traffic control units be equipped with devices that record background communication and the aural environment at controller work stations from 1 January 2010’.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority’s Safety Regulation Group (CAA SRG) has a consultation process where it is proposing that every airport or ATC centre that uses surveillance data or supports the operation of an air traffic service from that unit shall record screen shots of the surveillance data presented at each operational ATC position. The recorded data shall be retained for the ICAO minimum requirement of 30 days.

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FULFILLING THE REQUIREMENTS A recording solution that captures analogue audio, digital audio, VoIP, composite CCTV, IP-Cameras, LAN radars, asynchronous and synchronous serial radars, and other serial data in a single system that can play back all data synchronously will not only assist investigatory work and search and rescue operations, but also be of huge benefit to air traffic controllers, supervisors and management for training and quality improvement purposes.

The big picture gets better Accident and incident investigators have expressed that their work would be greatly assisted if it were possible to see exactly what was presented to the controller, to hear what was said and to reconstruct the actions taken at the time of incident under investigation.

“ The sheer magnitude of air traffic also means that these decisions have to be made more quickly and accurately than ever before”

Superior performance made simple Ricochet offers superior performance in a simple configuration, with great emphasis being placed on speed, reliability and simplicity of use. It not only accurately records voice conversations, it also simultaneously records CCTV, radar and screen images, enables efficient replay access and control and guarantees perfect synchronisation of data. Hence it is not only possible to hear what is said both prior to and following an incident, but also to visualise and analyse all relevant information surrounding it, at the drop of a hat.

User-friendly Ricochet ATC is also a vital tool in daily operations, not simply a data-logging device. Not only can controllers see the big picture at all times, Ricochet’s unique user interface means that they can speedily perform a number of tasks with simple steps. Whether quickly checking a voice message that was unclear, attaching data needed for further investigations to an email, or burning it on a USB thumb drive for a speedy and secure analysis, controllers can always rely on complete accuracy and authenticity, through Ricochet’s advanced security software.

Safe investment A modular structure makes Ricochet ATC fully expandable. As controllers’ tasks increase or operations grow, Ricochet can be easily expanded with them, making it the system of choice for over 200 airports of all sizes across the world, including Glasgow International Airport, Orly Airport, Singapore Changi Airport and Abu Dhabi ACC and EACC.

Tomorrow’s technology available today Ricochet is a young, dynamic company that is well positioned for the future. We see things differently and translate our thoughts into innovative ideas. Our vision is to make air traffic security simple and secure. We do this by working closely with our customers to develop solutions in line with their real needs, and the way they work, both today and in the future.

There are two main technologies in capturing CWP screens: Through The Wall (TTW) and At The Glass (ATG). Capturing screens with TTW means tapping raw, unprocessed and processed data feeds from the sources, in real-time, directly from the copper carrying the data. Data is at playback fed into the CWP for reconstruction during analysis of the scenario. One of the challenges with this technology is to recreate the exact picture of the Controller Working Position’s display at any time, due to the mix between generic recorded data and vendor specific data. There also exists a challenge in including messages generated by the underlying operating system like error messages and warnings.

Capturing screens with ATG can be divided into three categories. One where the display memory is continuously read and stored, the second

Jorn Rod-Larsen joined Ricochet in 2007 and has acquired experience with most fields within the company, especially focusing on sales and marketing. RodLarsen has been in management roles with companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Tieto and EDB Business Partner. He holds a BSc in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina and Management Studies at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

which records use X-11 commands and the third technology where one taps into the DVI/RGB signal and captures the screen’s image as it is displayed on the CWP screens. This method is completely non-intrusive and recreates the exact picture. The technology will interface to any system and is not vendor-specific. The user may also keep the same way of recording screens even if the ATM system and CWP positions are upgraded or replaced. During replay, the screen images are recreated in full synchrony with, for example, position communication or other types of data. To make sure no data is lost between screen captures the screen is typically captured four to eight times per second.

Recording solution Ricochet’s multi-flexible ATC solution is specifically designed for the ATC arena, with its particular needs in mind. Whilst setting a new, higher standard and changing the way the industry approached data logging a few years ago, today it is a proven system that has been serving satisfied customer all over the world since the year 2000.

Ricochet is fully in line with all industry requirements, including newly adopted amendments to the ICAO standards. It is now possible to experience instant and dependable synchronous replay of audio, radar, screens and video data with a simple touch of a button. This is what we call unified recording and replay. n

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Christian Egal, CEO of EDF Energy Renewables, tells Huw Thomas that the forecast for wind energy is extremely good. hen EDF Energy and EDF Energy Nouvelles announced their partnership to form EDF Energy Renewables in June 2008 this underlined a growing consensus that the industry needs to get serious about developing alternative power sources. Furthermore, the new company’s establishment in the UK reflects the country’s massive potential as a generator of wind energy. As an island nation, the surrounding seas offer access to one of the most abundant supplies of reliable wind anywhere in the world. When we meet up with CEO Christian Egal in EDF’s central London office, the UK’s suitability is something he is extremely keen to stress. “Renewable energy is growing every-

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where in the world. But in this country the mix is different,” he says.

“Wind energy has had huge growth for fi ve years, but what is specific in the UK is that Great Britain is an island, so we can take advantage of this location with all the renewable energy linked to the sea. Offshore wind is definitely the main renewables potential in the UK, as well as wave and tidal energies, which are also very promising. But those are still at the latest development phase.”

Plans for UK wind energy can only be described as ambitious. There is currently about 8GW of installed or planned capacity in place. The UK government’s strategic energy assessment recently reported that British seas could eventually supply a further 25GW of power, enough to serve the needs of all the country’s homes. But while there exist

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tremendous possibilities, actually realising them will require a great degree of effort. “It's a huge challenge,” Egal agrees. “Nobody has ever built a wind farm 100 kilometres off the coast in the North Sea. It will be difficult, but what is absolutely fantastic in this business is that everybody is very confident in the capability of the supply chain and the players to deliver.” Obviously, the costs associated with such a huge project present difficulties of their own. Installing turbines that far off the coast, even in the comparatively shallow North Sea, is a far more logistically trying operation than siting them onshore.

Farm sites are picked for their exposure to wind, which means they must be built in often very difficult conditions. Building offshore takes twice as long and costs twice as much as a similar project on land. But according to Egal, the UK Crown Estate’s plans are helping to mitigate this problem by targeting huge capacity. This encourages all the major players to get involved and creates significant economies of scale. “If you were to put one turbine in the North Sea, it

would never happen,” Egal says. “If you want to put 500 or 1000 wind turbines there, that is much more achievable.”

Building the wind farms is far from the only challenge. Getting the power they generate to where it is needed also requires some new thinking. “One of the other challenges is the grid,” Egal continues. “Connecting it needs a large scale approach rather than an individual approach for a single wind farm. Maybe in the long-term perspective, it will be a European approach because if we build a wind farm for the UK In the North Sea, it could also be connected to Sweden or Denmark. Maybe we’ll see in the next decades a power grid all over Europe, based on offshore wind farms located all over the seas.” This vision of an integrated European power infrastructure is one that crops up regularly in talks with those in the industry.

Given the speed and efficiency that normally characterises major pan-European projects, you would be forgiven for thinking such a future remains a long way off. While Egal concedes that it remains a

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huge undertaking, his confidence that it is achievable is infectious. As far as he is concerned, renewable energy, and specifically wind, is an idea whose time has come. “It’s very exciting,” he says. “Wind energy is the most dynamic industry all over the world, and even in this very tricky period it is still growing.”

Counting the cost While there is no argument that Europe desperately needs new sources of power if it is to remain successful, critics of renewable energy contend that it is simply not cost-effective without massive government subsidies. So can renewables ever offer value for money?

“It’s a complex approach,” Egal admits. “Renewable energy all across the world is still supported by public subsidy. The schemes that the countries select are different. The Renewables Obligation Certification (ROC) mechanism is specific in the UK, but in every country there are mechanisms that make renewable investment possible.

Because of the current energy market there is no possibility of making a renewable asset profitable. We are not far away, not at all. For example, last year, when the market price was not particularly high it was at the level, where it was much higher than the cost of renewable energy. But in order for an operator to decide on an investment, they need a certain level of visibility on the long-term. So all renewable energies are, incentivised by public schemes, which make the investment possible. The principle of renewable energy is that it starts from public and government willingness, worldwide European and country willingness to do it, and each country provides to the operators the appropriate scheme to make it happen. So is the mechanism proposed to the operator in the UK enough to be profitable? Yes. If it was no, there wouldn’t be any capacity, so it is profitable. Of course, there are some projects that are more profitable than others, and it’s down to a professional approach to make the difference.”

It is only natural that renewable energy is initially going to cost more than traditional sources of power. While coal and gas have a massive installed base, wind and the like are effectively starting from scratch. If we are serious about our commitment to getting more of our energy from renewable sources, these short-term costs are something that we will just have to bear. In any case, as traditional sources such as oil and gas start to dwindle and become harder to access, the market may make renewable energy considerably more competitive.

Unfortunately the current economic climate is particularly unfriendly. Sources of funding are tight and in many areas there seems little appetite for any investment that isn’t going to quickly bring big returns. Nonetheless, Egal is clear that EDF Energy Renewables remains on track to hit its targets. “It does have some impact, but more on the short-term period,” he says. “We have to deliver a gigawatt by 2012, so we have to be very attentive to the capability to invest in this wind farm in this difficult period. If we speak about the next phase to deliver even by 2015 or 2020, it’s another story. That will require a huge amount of money, but we can hope that it will be after the crisis that we are facing now. I am not saying it will be easy; it will

“We are looking at wave and tidal technologies, which are not as mature as wind energy, even offshore” While this makes a certain amount of sense, it doesn’t answer the question of whether renewable energy will ever be able to stand on its own two feet. The current system allows the power companies to stay in the black, but only on the back of government and consumer support. Will renewable energy ever be able to compete on a level playing field? “I would say, yes,” replies Egal. “The ROC mechanism provides some additional revenues to renewable energy up to a certain level of achievement. If the global target is reached, the ROC mechanism will stop. Currently the target is to achieve nine percent of power from renewables. The actual value is four percent. So the ROC mechanism is there to incentivise the utilities to deliver some renewable energy up to certain level of achievement. When that target is reached, the public support will stop. It’s logical.”

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cost billions and billions of euros to invest in these facilities. EDF as a whole has some other projects as well, so it is challenging.”

Further alternatives Though EDF Energy Renewables’ principal focus is on wind power, due to its comparative maturity and the UK’s geographical suitability, it is also exploring other potential avenues. “We are looking at wave and tidal technologies, which are not as mature as wind energy, even offshore,” says Egal. “We rely on the R&D department within EDF. We are looking at wave technologies as well. We are very attentive and we are following feedback on this work. Our business is to invest in modern technologies with good profi tability, so it could happen in the next two or three years.” Solar also remains in contention. Though the UK isn’t known for its cloudless skies, solar energy’s success in the not particularly sunny Germany demonstrates that, as technology improves and becomes less expensive, it does have a part to play in Europe’s renewable future.

But from a UK perspective, it is wind that is going to provide the big gains. Wind is one of the most well-established renewable energy sources and has developed rapidly over the past few dec-

A MIGHTY WIND Turbine technology has come a long way in a comparatively short time. Today’s biggest models are more than five times as big and 25 times more powerful than their earliest ancestors.

1985

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Rotor (metres)

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100

550

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Source: American Wind Association, CNET

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ades. “Wind technologies are improving every year,” Egal confirms.

“It is amazing because we now have some turbines that are 160 metres in diameter that generate 6MW. If you look at a wind turbine only 20 years ago, they were only 15 or so metres in diameter and generated only 50 KW. Who would’ve imagined 10 years ago that we could build and install some 6MW wind turbine? As an example, EDF Energy Nouvelles, part of EDF Energy Group, has stakes with other partners in a windfarm of 30MW capacity with just six wind turbines.

It is based 30km offshore and each wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 126 meters.”

And the technology is still developing. Egal tells us about projects working towards turbines able to produce 10MW and turbines based on floating platforms that can exploit the wind in deep-sea locations. With the huge capacity of today’s turbines it is not technology that is holding the more widespread adoption of wind power back. Rather it is outside factors that limit its large-scale implementation. The aforementioned issues with the grid are a major stumbling block, the lack of high power transmission lines making it extremely difficult to get energy from the remote areas where it is generated to the urban centres where it is most needed. Additionally, the UK planning process can throw plenty of obstacles in the path of speedy expansion. “To develop wind energy is a very long track with a lot of hurdles, particularly in this country,” Egal confirms. “The planning system is very slow, but I think it more or less always happens. And if we have an ambitious target, within a certain amount of time, you have to take into account

certain difficulties. But I would rather have a slow planning process where you generally get permission rather than a quick one where you do not.”

On the whole though, Egal seems optimistic about the potential for wind and other renewable energy, both in the UK and across the world. “When we look at the overall capacity we have 120,000MW installed all over the world,” he says. “Last year, for example, we installed more wind energy than gas or coal. Wind energy has developed more in European countries and the US than in developing countries, but if you look at the possibility of wind farms in China, for example, there is no limit.”

That is not to say we should expect to see a major uptake of renewable energy in the developing world all that soon. Egal sees it as a responsibility of those in more affl uent nations to keep working on the problem until it can become affordable for everybody. “I think the fair approach has been taken by the European countries but renewables remain more expensive than coal, gas and so on,” he says. “European countries and the US are paying to make these technologies as profitable as the other technologies in the near future. Can we really ask the developing counties to pay for these technologies? I don't think so, and I think we recognise that and that we have to pay this premium. Climate change, which is the basis of these developments, has given us huge responsibilities across Europe, so I think it is very fair approach for us to pay for the first stages of the development and allow others to take advantage of these developments when it is more financially viable. In terms of the possibility to implement wind energy in these countries, it could happen very quickly. It’s just about timing.”

“To develop wind energy is a very long track with a lot of hurdles”

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SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS For isolated areas and islands Highest wind penetration and fuel saving

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Danvest.indd 1

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Renewing strategy Renewables enjoyed an impressive boom in recent years, with high ROIs and plenty of credit available. But the outlook is not so bright these days and one victim of cost-cutting policies is the level of assets maintenance services. Ricardo Moro, of Global Energy Services suggests ways to avoid this. he current difficulty in obtaining financial resources for new projects is pressing asset owners to increase the profitability of those already in use. On a short-term perspective simply reducing operational costs like maintenance activities will achieve this, and many owners are seeking to increase productivity and efficiency since nowadays a proper improvement can mean signify difference between thriving and extinction.

This demand for productivity and efficiency cascades from the owners down to their suppliers, and among them are independent O&M service providers, which need to maintain (and increase, if possible) the availability and production of the plant with fewer human and material resources.

As a result, there is a change in the rules and practices of the maintenance activity. O&M

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“Wind energy has grown around 25 percent annually during the last three years” service contracts used to establish prices based upon the number of technicians employed in the plant; now prices are based upon plant availability and energy output, including rewards and penalties that derive from reaching (or not reaching) certain objectives. Calculations are used that take into account all relevant factors like grid availability, weather conditions, and turbine availability.

Technicians used to be permanently allocated to a specific plant but are now arranged in groups so that some ‘general-purpose’

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teams attend a range of nearby wind or solar farms, whereas others, specialised in certain kind of operations (component exchange for example), cover a wider geographical circle.

This is made possible thanks to current mobile communications technologies, which allow for online monitoring for the position of different teams.

From a task organisation standpoint, corrective actions used to be the main driver of the activity but now there is a shift towards preventive and predictive maintenance.

Shorter periods are being set up for the assessment of the running operations, with an increasing use of real time data collection tools and monitoring systems, and this in turn allows for the re-scheduling of certain activities whenever the analysis of the information reveals that it is advisable.

The list of benefits is extensive: reduction in failures, better accomplishment of preventive maintenance schedule (thus avoiding an accelerated ageing of the asset), more rational planning and less unscheduled working hours with a positive influence on personnel motivation and a reduction of accidents.

All the measures described above are the necessary outcome of a very demanding financial environment and can be possible due to the fact that the renewable energy sector has reached a high degree of maturity.

However, these new requirements should not be seen just as unavoidable problems that we need to overcome.

At Global Energy Services (GES) we face the situation as a great opportunity to gain competitiveness in the renewables sector.

Wind energy, as an example, has grown around 25 percent annually during the last three years. According to BTM Consult, last year 28,190MW were installed leading to a cumulative worldwide total of 122,000MW. This means that the installed power has dou-

Ricardo Moro is Chief Executive Officer at Global Energy Services (GES), an independent services provider to the energy sector and world leader in the wind market with 4400 employees active in Europe, North America and North Africa. He is an industrial engineer and has over 20 years’ experience in the renewable energy sector, both in manufacturing and in service activities. He has held different positions in Gamesa including Deputy General Manager in the manufacturing division and has been CEO at GES since 2003.

bled in three years. All those new installations need to be maintained which presents a formidable opportunity for independent service providers. For the asset owners, a sound maintenance strategy that generates a small percentual improvement in availability and energy production will have significant effects in terms of plant profitability and, from a larger perspective, in reduced CO2 emissions.

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ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

WIND POWER Will European Union wind power reach the tough renewable targets its been set for 2020? Christian Kjaer, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association, explains why and how it just could.

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he European Union has set a binding target of 20 percent of its energy supply to come from wind and other renewable sources by 2020. In order to achieve this 20 percent energy target, more than one-third of the European electrical demand would have to come from renewables, with wind power expected to deliver 12-14 percent. So how realistic is this target? Well, Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) believes that this is completely possible. “To reach the targets set out by the European union we would have to increase total wind power capacity in Europe by 9.5 gigawatts per year over the next 12 years. Given that we increased wind power

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capacity by 8.5 gigawatts last year, it’s not an ambitious aspiration,” he explains. It is quite clear that wind energy will provide the lion’s share of the energy target that the European Union has set, but the target also calls for hydro resources and biomass to be fully utilised. “I would say it’s certainly achievable to reach 20 percent renewables although whether we meet the projections for biomass remains to be seen. It’s all down to how effectively the members are going to implement renewables – that’s the big question mark,” adds Kjaer.

While it is widely believed that the development of wind energy across Europe is limited by existing power infrastructure, Kjaer believes that this is not a hugely limiting factor in regard to the physical

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W O R KS grid. “We do have some restrictions if we look at certain regions of Europe. There are regions in Spain where you get 40-50 percent of the electricity coming from wind, so there are certainly limitations on how much you can expand there unless you do something with the internal infrastructure of the grid itself,” he explains.

Challenges So, challenges do remain in terms of how the grid is operated.

Kjaer believes that it is vital to start putting together plans that allow investment in new infrastructure, as projects take an extended amount of time to get on track. “We certainly need to change operations and look at the way we operate our grid if we want to meet the 2020 renewable target. There is no question that the biggest challenge over the next 10 years is grid infrastructure. The grid is already a limiting factor because of course we don’t have electricity infrastructure offshore.

We need to start planning to prevent this becoming a challenge in the

future,” says Kjaer. “In short there are limitations, certainly offshore with the lack of grid, but we need to stop and put in place measures that concentrate on companies investing and building in the sector.

There are some institutional problems with this, such as a lack of funding. But we simply haven’t invested enough in our infrastructure for decades now and that needs to change if we want to make a dramatic change in the way we get our energy in the future.”

While offshore wind is more expensive than onshore wind energy, due to the high costs of foundations and the grid that needs to be built to access it, offshore will always provide a larger wind resource. Kjaer hopes that as more economies of scale are introduced to the system and wind turbines are mass-produced, offshore will be recognised for the stronger resource that it is. “The offshore market in Europe is more or less at the level that we were in 1992 and 1993 onshore, so we haven’t even come close to reaping the benefits and getting the cost reductions down in the same way as onshore in the last 20 years,”

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he says. “In order to do that we need economies of scale and that’s Power generation why it’s so important that you have some companies that are focusing As Europe looks to expand both onshore and offshore wind very heavily on this, including in the UK, Germany and Norway, as well generation capacity it becomes clear that wind alone cannot be as France. But again offshore infrastructure is a much more imminent responsible for all of our power generation because of its variable issue to solve compared to onshore because there aren’t any grids.” nature. So how large a proportion of European energy can be realisKjaer goes on to explain that the benefit of improving offshore tically generated by wind? Kjaer believes it depends on how big an grids is that it is possible to build interconnections between countries integrated power system it is possible to construct, so the amount which in turn mean it would be possible to improve the electricity and of wind energy put into the system at a European level depends on tracing of electricity over the borders of Europe, giving consumers the how integrated the European grid system turns out to be. Of course cheapest power possible. By planning infrastructure investment it will the bigger the geographical area, the more firm power is generated benefit in terms of maximising the exchange between various member from wind energy so there is a huge benefi t in the geographical states as well as putting the infrastructure where there are offshore dispersion of wind energy. However, in order to get that geographiwind resources or weight power resources and improve the functioncal dispersion it means that the grid has to have the same sort of ing of the internal electricity market while meeting targets for renewadimensions, which is why interconnections are so valuable. A more bles. “What we do in terms of offshore infrastructure is extremely interconnected grid means that variability becomes irrelevant. “This important, and here we are in need of faster action than onshore in is why we believe that the infrastructure is so important, and it’s terms of new infrastructure. We need to figure out structures that not only about integrating wind energy but also about improving allow us to make smart plans in how we build electricity infrastruccompetition in the electricity market.” ture offshore at a bilateral or regional country level. It’s very much Kjaer goes on to say that no-one is suggesting wind energy a similar challenge that we’re standing in front of as when we were should provide 100 percent of all European Union power, but rather building the oil and gas infrastructure. if it was well integrated and utilised We would like for that planning to be a it could have a large segment of the bit more international in nature, and a electricity market. “If we used the enorWHY WIND? bit more coordinated among individual mous hydro resources that we have in Some of the many benefits associated with European countries than we saw with Norway or Sweden for example, which wind power include: oil and gas because it makes sense in complements wind energy extremely terms of electricity markets.”

There is no doubt that grid infrastructure is going to be the most important issue to work on in the next decade, along with the development of the power market and a much higher degree of interconnection between the European member states. While it will be possible to learn something from the onshore infrastructure for increasing offshore wind farms particularly around grid development, Kjaer believes that from an infrastructure perspective we in Europe have never much cared about what happens on the other side of the border, which means it may well be harder to do so this time around. “We musn’t repeat what we’ve done onshore because there needs to be cooperation in terms of infrastructure planning,” advises Kjaer. “Let’s not repeat the nationalistic approach that we have taken on for the last 100 years when we planned grids. Instead it’s even more important that we cooperate as the benefits of offshore are that much higher.”

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• Economic growth and job creation: In 2008, the value of wind turbines installed in Europe was €11 billion. In 2020, the annual market for wind energy in the EU is expected to reach €17 billion. About 160,000 people in the EU were in wind energy-related employment in 2008. The wind industry could create up to 368,000 new jobs in the EU from 2000 to 2020.

• Cleaning up the environment: Europe’s 65 gigawatts (GW) of wind power installed by the end of 2008 will annually avoid 108 million tones of CO2 – the equivalent of taking over 50 million cars off the road, This also translates into an annual CO2 cost of about €2.4 billion.

• Energy independence: Europe now imports more than half its energy, a figure that is expected to climb to 70 percent in the next 20 to 30 years. The European wind industry’s installed capacity of 65 GW is enough to provide power for the equivalent of 35 million average EU households. Wind energy allowed EU nations to avoid paying fuel costs of €5.4 billion last year.

well, I have no doubt that we can have a system based on 100 percent renewable electricity, be it biomass, wind, large hydro, small hydro or geothermal.

But it requires a complete change in our way of thinking about operating systems and requires that we start utilising that.”

Indeed, Kjaer believes that there are no technical barriers to wind energy producing 25-40 percent of Europe’s electricity. He highlights Denmark as having plans to use wind power alone to generate 50 percent of its electricity by 2020.

If that is possible in a small geographical area like Denmark, why shouldn’t it be possible Europe wide. “In reality there are no technical barriers to having half of Europe’s electricity supplied by wind energy, but that will be beyond 2020, when we expect to be on target and see between 14 and 19 percent of our energy coming from here. By 2030 I see wind energy will provide at least a quarter of our electricity. There’s still quite a long way to go in terms of increasing wind energies,” explains Kjaer.

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Progress In terms of moving forward, Kjaer explains that the key projects currently underway in the European wind energy space are extremely interesting and that the sector is learning a great deal from these developments. He also points to Eastern Europe as an interesting area, with Romania, Bulgaria and Poland in particular getting serious about renewable energy. “The speed at which the conditions have been put in place to attract investors is great,” says Kjaer. “It’s interesting to see how these countries have approached the whole debate about the renewables directive, putting in place measures in terms of grid access and payment frameworks.”

So how does Kjaer envisage the wind energy space progressing in the future as Europe reaches its 2020 deadline? “It’s a truly interesting time,” replies Kjaer, “because we have come from a past in which we actually didn’t need more new electricity generating capacity. We actually had excess capacity until a few years ago, which is no longer the case because we are shutting down old power plants and have to build new ones.

What the European Commission is saying is that between now and 2020 we have to build approximately 350,000 megawatts of new electricity generating capacity, which is equal to 50 percent of all capacity that’s currently running in the European Union.”

Kjaer explains that the key element over the next 12 years will be seeing where that capacity will come from – where wind will be in relation to its main competitors in terms of new electricity generating capacity. “If we look at investments over the last 10 years, Europe has really been investing in wind power and gas, and I think it will be interesting to see how wind energy compares in terms of cost with building a new gas fired power plant,” he says. Kjaer sees three factors that are very much in wind energy’s favour. Firstly is that it is quicker to build a wind farm than a new coal or gas fired power plant. Second is the fact that from 2013 coal and gas power plants will have to pay for every ton of CO2 that is emitted. And third is that with a coal or gas fired plant it is vital to take into account future fuel prices in order to understand the cost of operations. “One of the main benefits of wind power is that the cost of carbon and fuel prices will be zero over the next 20 years of operation, whereas you can’t guarantee that for coal and gas fired plants, you just don’t know what fuel and carbon prices will be.

“The competition over the next 12 years will be who gets to build those 350,000 megawatts that we need in the European Union. It will be between coal, gas and wind energy and with the current outlook for fuel prices, wind energy looks like an increasingly attractive investment.”

“We simply haven’t invested enough in our infrastructure for decades now and that needs to change if we want to make a dramatic change in the way we get our energy in the future”

OFFSHORE WIND MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN THE EU UP TO 2008 AND EWEA’S SCENARIOS UP TO 2030

OPERATIONAL OFFSHORE WIND FARMS United Kingdom Belgium

12000

120000

10000

100000

8000

80000

6000

60000

4000

40000

2000

20000

Germany Ireland

ANNUAL

Finland

CUMULATIVE

Denmark

Netherlands Sweden

Source: EWEA

United Kingdom

39%

Denmark

28%

590.80 MW 409.15 MW

Netherlands

17%

246.80 MW

Sweden

9%

133.30 MW

Belgium

2%

30.00 MW

2000 2002

2004 2006 2008 2010 2020 2030

Annual installation Annual installation (Ref.scenario)

Ireland

1%

25.20 MW

Finland

2%

24.00 MW

Cumulative installation

Germany

1%

12.00 MW

Cumulative installation (Ref.scenario) Source: EWEA

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TAKING CARE Addressing the safety challenges of the renewable energy.

ERIC THORMANN

ur world is going through a fundamental transformation with incredible business and political challenges. Emerging economies are becoming major players in the international scene, while the unprecedented recession is challenging the concept of globalisation. However, these challenges are forcing us to rethink and redefine the way we live.

One of the most significant examples is the incredible boom of the renewable energy segment – more specifically wind energy.

Wherever we travel these days, we see wind turbines or trucks zooming to deliver elements of towers throughout the world. And the key words of the wind power industry are safety, reliability and performance.

While cashing in on the environment debate and action by governments across the world, this industry is creating job opportunities with a conscious effort on safety during building of, as well as the maintenance of, the turbines.

All actors of the wind industry that I meet are dedicated to safety. Access to sites is highly regulated and PPE is mandatory.

Safety training is a genuine part of the culture. During my visit to the sites, I am always impressed by the professionalism of the

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safety officers. We at Power Climber are extremely proud to be a key contributor in this field, offering access solutions to the wind industry and ensuring safety at height during installation and maintenance of the turbines.

Safety is our business and our passion. We provide service lift solution SHERPA, climb assist system with our recently launched IBEX, as well as standard and engineered solutions for blade and tower access.

The wind industry is winning the race to be one of the most reliable sources of energy.

The technology breakthroughs in improving all components of the turbines to make them even more reliable are impressive.

“And the key words of the wind power industry are safety, reliability and performance” The introduction of Six Sigma and the investments in R&D centres by major OEMs is a proof of this commitment. The increase and improvement in the service capabilities of those in the industry is clearly an indication of willingness to manage this challenge.

Power Climber brings its contribution to this effort, by designing and providing reliable solutions dedicated to the maintenance and repair of the wind turbines that enable the service teams to perform their tasks with increased productivity.

The ‘MegaWatt Race’ and the adjustment of towers to the configuration of the

wind park represent amazing technological developments. But what is Power Climber’s contribution? The tallest of the towers require access to the nacelle safely and rapidly, and here once more this is our core business.

Since 1972, Power Climber has been providing access solutions to a variety of industries. The most significant of them are construction, industrial and wind energy.

The ‘MegaWatt Race’ of the wind industry presents a great opportunity for us to exploit our engineering and technology expertise as an engineered access solutions specialist.

In addition, our range includes access solutions for suspended bridges, manufacturing, mining, oil & gas, aerospace and military. Our philosophy is leadership in innovation, safety, reliability and dedication to serve our customers. We can assure that we will not only keep up this commitment but continue to be innovative in our approach to access solutions.

Eric Thormann is Vice President and Managing Director of Power Climber International, a subsidiary of SafeWorks.

He started his career at Volvo Cars as Services Director for France. In 1997 he joined Carrier UTC as Marketing and Services Director in Paris for the Europe and Middle East region, before restructuring Carrier Sutrak as Managing Director. In 2003 he joined American Standard Trane division as Vice President of Services for the Europe Middle East and India region.

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INSIDE STORY

Breaking new ground Li Shirong

New demand for greater collaboration and exchange of information is leading to some significant construction industry shifts – none more so than at the Chartered Institute of Building.

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omen have made some fantastic in-roads into industries that have historically been dominated by men, but despite this, the gritty world of construction has remained a man’s world. In fact, with under 10 percent of the UK industry made up of females, construction is still considered a daunting environment for women to enter. But with the appointment of its new president, the Chartered Institute of Building is breaking new ground – in more ways than one.

A pioneer in construction management in her home country of China, Li Shirong’s work spans academia, industry and government and reflects her strong belief in the need for sustainable urbanisation. As a member of the CIOB since its early connections with China (and as

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such regarded as a major factor in its growth there), Shirong is keen to use her term to ensure that international communications remain high on the agenda. “As the world becomes smaller, it’s easier to share experience about how to make the best use of our resources. But the world is still challenging – we need communication and collaboration internationally, particularly during the current economic crisis,” she says.

Her appointment is certainly an important milestone for the 175-year-old organisation; as well as being the first female president, this is the first time that the CIOB has selected someone from outside of the UK to take on the top role. And while Shirong is no stranger to the issues presented by the CIOB’s core market – having studied in Europe and through her work

with the institute, she is well aware of the problems faced by the UK’s construction industry – she is keen to use her presidency to foster a more international approach.

“Communication is so important in terms of sharing experiences and creating new opportunities, so this is something I really want to concentrate on,” she says. “I think it is exciting but also challenging work for both the CIOB and myself. We have members around the world, and I think to have a president from outside of the UK will help bring a different viewpoint and help encourage a dialogue of communication between our various members in the international environment.”

One such area of focus is particularly close to her heart – that of the development and growing influence of China. “China’s economic develop-

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ment has produced a building boom on a scale not seen in modern history, and it is important that China learns from the experience of the West,” she explains. “However, because China can build in technology at an earlier stage of its infrastructure, it is also able to incorporate previously untried environmental innovations and ideas. Therefore the West can learn much from China. This situation underlines the acute need for a two-way exchange of ideas and experience.”

It also highlights the wisdom of the CIOB’s latest appointment. Shirong’s strong connections with her home city of Chongqing – now regarded as the world’s largest city – certainly provide her with experience that will be valuable to all CIOB members. The city is making huge investments in urban construction, has a fastgrowing population and a large construction workforce, and Shirong has played a central role in its development in recent years. As such, she is perfectly placed to advise on the various challenges presented by rapid urbanisation – with sustainability chief amongst them.

“Sustainability needs to be a major focus of our discussions as an industry,” she suggests. “I always tell people the city is a museum of buildings – that we don’t just build buildings, we create communities, influence society, stimulate economic activity – and I think our members should be very proud of that; however, with that comes a certain responsibility, and the need to focus on sustainable development. Construction is an incredibly important sector – particularly for

those countries that are going through rapid urbanisation.”

The related concepts of conservation and maintenance will also be key areas of focus for Shirong in the coming months. “Conservation is a comprehensive process and requires a lot of knowledge,” she says. “You need to do a lot of investigation before making a decision on whether to conserve or demolish. Do you conserve the whole area or one single building or even just a part of the building? Is a historically significant but dilapidated building worthy of re-

“Conservation is a comprehensive process and requires a lot of knowledge.

You need to do a lot of investigation before making a decision on whether to conserve or demolish” pair and restoration, and if so, should you use traditional methods of building that are true to the spirit of the building or more efficient and cost-effective modern methods? These are big decisions.”

Which leads us back to Shirong’s core competency: construction management. Looking at urbanisation in such a holistic way really requires an integrated approach between many different stakeholders – between architects, developers and planners, local governments, environmental groups and suppliers. There are a lot of different constituencies that all need to come together to really work on making sus-

A LIFE IN CONSTRUCTION i Shirong began her working life on a wheat farm, mixing fertile earth from the surrounding mountains into the sandy soil towards the end of the Cultural Revolution.

When Chinese policy changed and young people were allowed to take examinations to enter universities for the first time in over a decade, Shirong first studied civil engineering (her father’s profession) before going on to become one of the first in China to study Construction Management, a field in which she later became a professor.

In 2003, the government of Chongqing (a region of 32 million people) asked her to help in its modernisation process. She became Vice-Mayor of the Shapbingba District, leading a team to create an entirely new ‘university town’, relocating farmers and building around 10 universities for 80,000 students.

Shirong was only the third Chinese national ever to join the CIOB and has encouraged membership in China ever since. She has also been instrumental in joint schemes between the CIOB and the Chinese construction industry – currently involving training and is an ambassador to the Chinese Ministry of Construction.

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tainability a realistic goal. So what can be done to improve the way that these different groups and types of stakeholder work together?

“It’s simple,” she says. “Management is about dealing with people. It’s about leadership.

This is why I always say that the CIOB is a good forum for talking about construction management; we should be working together in a partnership. The CIOB is really trying to show the value of conservation, linking it to sustainability through a series of seminars and events; we’re trying to start a dialogue about the value

of conserving your heritage. We’re very much embracing the knowledge within our membership, and using those members to spread the word and show the actual value.”

Part of that value is, of course, in the growing role tourism plays in emerging economies.

Again, Shirong uses the UK as an example. “For many overseas visitors, tourism in the UK is actually about coming to the country and experiencing the culture and the heritage, and if you sacrifice that then you actually sacrifice quite a bit of your economy. There are lots of countries out there that have a strong cultural identity, and keeping that is important for those economies.”

Shirong has certainly come a long way since her first job labouring in the mud of a wheat farm at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution 30 years ago, but symbolically, she is still breaking new ground. Modestly, she puts the achievement within a much wider context. “I am just a normal person from China,” she says. “For the institute to trust me and elect me is a big thing, for both myself and my country. I will never forget my daughter’s reaction to the news. She said that this was the most important thing in my life, as it shows that as a professional I got to the top.

But this post really isn’t about me. It’s about changes in China, and changes in the attitude of the industry. This couldn’t have happened 30 years ago, under the planned economy. Through the open door policy and reform, we changed – to be able to compete in an international society.

It’s an historic achievement.” n

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CONSTRUCTION

Time to build As an academic, Ron McCaffer’s role as Chairman of the ECI is bucking the trend in more ways than one. Here EU Infrastructure finds out about his role, the work the Institute is currently involved in and how the construction sector is coping in the recession.

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s Europe’s only transnational learning network covering the entire cycle of engineering and construction, the European Construction Institute (ECI) has some stories to tell. Launched in 1990 to coincide with the privatisation of the Central Electric Generating Board (CEGB), it was set up to develop and maintain a sustainable, performance-based culture across the industry. The man behind the ECI is Ron McCaffer, who today is the Chairman of the group. “That is almost unconstitutional,” he jokes when I speak to him from his office in Loughborough, England. “I wrote the constitution myself and it says that the Chairman must be someone from within the industry. This was to be an industry-led institution, not an academic one; so this is a great honour that they [the members] have bestowed upon me.”

McCaffer is a Professor of Construction Management – a title he has held since 1986. As a lecturer at Loughborough University, his career has also positioned him in the roles of Head of Civil Engineering, Dean of Engineering and Deputy Vice Chancellor of the university, though this is a role he has since stepped back from.

“When the CEGB was still a nationalised company, our organiza-

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tion not only built power stations and generated, distributed and sold electricity, but also did a lot of good work in between,” McCaffer explains. “But when the CEGB broke up into fi ve privatised companies, that good work simply disappeared between the cracks.” Because of this, the industry felt that it needed something to replace the body that had previously been operating in the non-profit arena. The pressure for this largely came from the big clients, McCaffer explains.

Subsequently, the establishment of what is now known as the ECI – which mostly concentrates on working with engineering construction, such as oil and gas, power, major infrastructure and pharmaceuticals (rather than buildings) – was greatly encouraged to establish itself by these clients, particularly the oil and power companies. Coincidentally, Europe seemed to be opening up, stimulating an excitement about the prospect of trading across borders. As a result, instead of creating the once-proposed UK Construction Institute, the European version was established.

“The most exciting thing that happened at that time was that we received a letter of support from the then-UK Prime Minister, who was very encouraging about the fact that these European construction clients, contractors and consultants were going to be acting together in this way for the common good,” notes McCaffer.

“Of course, the interesting thing is that the then-Prime Minister was Mrs. Thatcher, who was not exactly known for her European views,” he adds with a grin. “I still have the letter.”

Structure and operation The ECI works in a unique fashion, explains McCaffer. Every subscribing member becomes a part of what the ECI calls the Membership Council, who then meet twice a year to give the organisation its directive as to what it should be doing. From there, the Board of Advisors elects an Executive Group and, as Chairman, McCaffer heads up that group. “Traditionally the role of Chairman has been filled by an industrialist and when I step down, which will be in the not too distant future, I’ll be replaced by an industrialist, and that’s how it should be,” he explains.

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From there, the ECI operates a series of limited-life task forces, which combine the experience and expertise of industry members with the research methodology and knowledge of ECI’s academic partners. ECI task forces are put together as groups of people who are able to address a specific issue at a specific time within the industry.

McCaffer explains that these task forces, typically made up of a group of industrialists and one academic representative, will commission further industry research and then publish the results as a report, handbook or web-based tool for use by the rest of the industry. “In

LINDSEY OIL REFINERY n 28 January 2009, approximately 800 local contractors of Total’s Lindsey Oil Refinery went on strike following appointment by the Italian construction contractor IREM of several hundred European (mainly Italian and Portuguese) contractors on the site, despite the current high unemployment in the local and global economy.

Despite a seeming resolution, the strikes resumed on 19 June 2009 when nearly 700 construction staff were sacked at the refinery. The sackings came after 1200 workers walked out unofficially at the plant in a jobs dispute, causing a ripple of workers at other plants across the UK to walked out in sympathy.

Workers at the Lindsey refinery were invited to re-apply for their jobs, with managers at Total giving them a deadline of 5pm on Monday 22 June 2009 to do so. However, angered by the actions of the management, workers burned their dismissal letters at a protest outside the refinery.

Negotiations between Total and representatives of the GMB union were adjourned on Tuesday 23 June with some progress having been made, but sources said a number of ‘significant barriers’ remained. Talks resumed on 25 June, and an agreement was reached late that evening to end the industrial action. On 29 June workers at the refinery voted to accept the deal.

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the past these task forces have gone through works on the evolution of the partnering craze, and we also did a lot of work on partnering because though energy under European procurement competition has to follow EU rules, these rules and partnering did not at first appear to sit neatly together.”

McCaffer points out that a lot of that work was done in order to tease these issues out, which in turn led to the quality revolution in the 1990s. “At the start of that decade, for example, contractors would say, ‘We’re in business in order to make a profit,’ which has the underlying point of meaning, ‘We’ll do what we have to do to make a profit’. By the end of the 1990s, these same contractors would say, ‘We’re in business to deliver a right first time, high quality service that works for our clients.’ That was the transition that took place as various forms of quality management worked their way into the industry.”

Of course, the challenges facing the industry are ongoing, and today they are dominated by the recession. “If you look at our conference program for this October, for example, the big issue we are covering is the global market and the recession, and we are busy collecting data on that at the moment,” explains McCaffer.

What’s more, there has long been a feeling in the ECI that the con-

“there has long been a feeling in the ECI that the construction industry needs to remain sustainable. In these terms, that word doesn’t mean ‘green’ like it so often does today, but it rather the need to be competitive” struction industry needs to remain sustainable. In these terms, that word doesn’t mean ‘green’ like it so often does today, but it rather the need to be competitive. But how do you get your industry to become competitive? McCaffer explains that this need forced the ECI to look at a framework of training courses called Master Classes, based on research from within the members’ work, that could be used to educate others. He pinpoints one Master Class that is particularly relevant to today’s challenges. “Managing your people on site is a real issue,” he says. “Look at the huge manpower problem on the Lindsey Oil Refinery that we saw in early June [see boxout]. Somehow the industry has to resolve these sorts of problems or it isn’t competitive. And if it isn’t competitive someone else is going to fill the void.”

Training programs through the ECI are given the grand title of Master Classes because, in effect, they are in place to find a master of a certain topic, as McCaffer explains: “In October this year, we have a conference that will offer Master Classes covering topics such as Dispute and Avoidance Management, Fast Track Projects, Health and Safety, Managing the Multinational Workforce, Managing People and Projects, Multicultural Project Teamworking, New Mobile Information Technology in Construction, Project Cost Management and Risk Analysis and Management.”

Ultimately, these Master Classes provide an opportunity for experienced project and construction managers and engineers to ben-

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From there, the ECI operates a series of limited-life task forces, which combine the experience and expertise of industry members with the research methodology and knowledge of ECI’s academic partners. ECI task forces are put together as groups of people who are able to address a specific issue at a specific time within the industry.

McCaffer explains that these task forces, typically made up of a group of industrialists and one academic representative, will commission further industry research and then publish the results as a report, handbook or web-based tool for use by the rest of the industry. “In

LINDSEY OIL REFINERY n 28 January 2009, approximately 800 local contractors of Total’s Lindsey Oil Refinery went on strike following appointment by the Italian construction contractor IREM of several hundred European (mainly Italian and Portuguese) contractors on the site, despite the current high unemployment in the local and global economy.

Despite a seeming resolution, the strikes resumed on 19 June 2009 when nearly 700 construction staff were sacked at the refinery. The sackings came after 1200 workers walked out unofficially at the plant in a jobs dispute, causing a ripple of workers at other plants across the UK to walked out in sympathy.

Workers at the Lindsey refinery were invited to re-apply for their jobs, with managers at Total giving them a deadline of 5pm on Monday 22 June 2009 to do so. However, angered by the actions of the management, workers burned their dismissal letters at a protest outside the refinery.

Negotiations between Total and representatives of the GMB union were adjourned on Tuesday 23 June with some progress having been made, but sources said a number of ‘significant barriers’ remained. Talks resumed on 25 June, and an agreement was reached late that evening to end the industrial action. On 29 June workers at the refinery voted to accept the deal.

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the past these task forces have gone through works on the evolution of the partnering craze, and we also did a lot of work on partnering because though energy under European procurement competition has to follow EU rules, these rules and partnering did not at first appear to sit neatly together.”

McCaffer points out that a lot of that work was done in order to tease these issues out, which in turn led to the quality revolution in the 1990s. “At the start of that decade, for example, contractors would say, ‘We’re in business in order to make a profit,’ which has the underlying point of meaning, ‘We’ll do what we have to do to make a profit’. By the end of the 1990s, these same contractors would say, ‘We’re in business to deliver a right first time, high quality service that works for our clients.’ That was the transition that took place as various forms of quality management worked their way into the industry.”

Of course, the challenges facing the industry are ongoing, and today they are dominated by the recession. “If you look at our conference program for this October, for example, the big issue we are covering is the global market and the recession, and we are busy collecting data on that at the moment,” explains McCaffer.

“There has long been a feeling in the ECI that the construction industry needs to remain sustainable. In these terms, that word doesn’t mean ‘green’ like it so often does today, but it rather the need to be competitive” What’s more, there has long been a feeling in the ECI that the construction industry needs to remain sustainable. In these terms, that word doesn’t mean ‘green’ like it so often does today, but it rather the need to be competitive. But how do you get your industry to become competitive? McCaffer explains that this need forced the ECI to look at a framework of training courses called Master Classes, based on research from within the members’ work, that could be used to educate others. He pinpoints one Master Class that is particularly relevant to today’s challenges. “Managing your people on site is a real issue,” he says. “Look at the huge manpower problem on the Lindsey Oil Refinery that we saw in early June [see boxout]. Somehow the industry has to resolve these sorts of problems or it isn’t competitive. And if it isn’t competitive someone else is going to fill the void.”

Training programs through the ECI are given the grand title of Master Classes because, in effect, they are in place to find a master of a certain topic, as McCaffer explains: “In October this year, we have a conference that will offer Master Classes covering topics such as Dispute and Avoidance Management, Fast Track Projects, Health and Safety, Managing the Multinational Workforce, Managing People and Projects, Multicultural Project Teamworking, New Mobile Information Technology in Construction, Project Cost Management and Risk Analysis and Management.”

Ultimately, these Master Classes provide an opportunity for experienced project and construction managers and engineers to ben-

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FEEL THE FORCE A closer look at some of the task forces currently in operation at the ECI Achieving Competitiveness Through Innovation and Value Enhancement (ACTIVE) The ECI ACTIVE task force will launch an updated version of ACTIVE, its eight ACTIVE principles and supporting Value Enhancing Practices at the October conference. Application of the ACTIVE principles is proven to result in better projects for clients as well as increased business and profitability for suppliers and contractors. Those projects on which ACTIVE has been applied do not suffer from the type of industrial unrest seen at the Lindsey Oil Refinery. As a result, the government is taking a keen interest in this work.

Industry Futures The Industry Futures Task Force has been established to identify major issues and drivers that will be affecting

the European construction industry over the next 10 – 20 years. Its mission is to identify the three to fi ve key issues that will have the biggest impact on future members, understand what the European construction industry might look like in 20 years time and communicate relevant programmes of work to support members in successfully evolving towards that end.

development and implementation teams plus other key parties.

Safety Health/Environment (SHE) The SHE task force was first set up in 1990 and is the only long standing ECI Task Force. Its proposed mission is to provide guidance to ECI members on construction safety, health and environmental issues, particularly from a pan-European perspective.

Project Cost Management ECI is carrying out research to identify how member companies and others can improve project cost outcome predictability. This subject has a high profile in many client and contractor organisations, given the increasing challenges imposed upon project teams. A clear issue is that effective project cost management requires active understanding, involvement and support from the whole of the project

efi t from ECI knowledge and research, and to exchange and develop their expertise and ideas with their peers. The Master Classes are designed to be interactive in style, facilitated by a tutor, and include lectures and presentations, interactive discussions and case study examples. And as the ECI has grown, so have the topics that Master Classes cover; what’s more, they are determined by the changing needs of the industry and public sector bodies.

McCaffer draws attention to his involvement with one of the UK’s biggest current infrastructure projects: the 2012 Olympics. “I did some work earlier in the start up of that in looking at the logistics. For example, organisers have just built a new lock on the canal that allows them to feed material in and out of the Olympic site that way, to minimise the impact on the environment and the residents around the site. In practice, the use of rail to transport materials has been very high.

“The other thing that interested us early on with the Olympics was the management structure, because the last big project before the Olympics was T5. Of course, the difference there was that T5 was done through a single private sector client, the British Airports Authority (BAA).”

At that time, as McCaffer highlights, BAA set up a very imagina-

Whole Life Value (WLV) The ECI WLV task force has been developing methodology and tools to help decision-makers better evaluate project and major purchase options in a way that takes account for all the value drivers through the asset life cycle. A WLV tool has now been developed and is being trialled in the UK government’s Building Schools for the Future projects.

tive structure that took all the risk off the contractors. “Essentially the structure at T5 said, ‘You’re contracted to deliver the services that we require and we’ll pay you for those, but there’s no downside to you.’

Of course, there were a few that didn’t live up to it, but the BAA had a very novel approach to that structure.

“Today a lot of the people that worked on T5 have moved on to the Olympics. If you look at the Olympic structure, it has got committees and there has been a huge worry that the client side of the Olympics might not be as efficient as it needs to be to deliver the project. But so far, so good; so maybe the early concerns will prove to be unfounded.”

Lastly, in addition to the huge amount of work going on with the Olympics, McCaffer also explains how the ECI gives away, each year, a Project of the Year prize. “These are given, not necessarily because they’re grand projects, but because they’re well-managed projects,” he says.

“The companies can nominate the projects themselves and our judging panel then sets out and picks the projects. Last year the winner was the high-speed rail link into St. Pancras in London. Now the call is out for nominations for this year, which will be judged in September and awarded at the October conference, so it really is an exciting time for the industry.”

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HEAVYWEIGHT CHALLENGE Terex Cranes’ Klaus Meissner tells EU Infrastructure about the construction trends driving his company’s business.

Have you noticed significant changes in the market for your heavy lifting segment?

Klaus Meissner. As a crane manufacturer we have witnessed a growing demand for our products. Increasing global wealth and population growth has led to much new investment in infrastructure construction in many parts of the world.

We are seeing this infrastructure investment in all areas, including transport infrastructure – road-building, railways and waterways; the energy sector – building new power plants and refurbishing existing ones, as well as building facilities which make use of renewable energy sources and general construction.

How far are you affected by these developments?

KM. The energy sector, for example, is a major area of operation for our large crawler cranes. The activities we have noticed recently include the building of new plants in order to extend the supply base as well as the replacement or refurbishment of existing plants in order to make them more efficient and to reduce emissions. We have also seen the development of renewable energy sources, such as wind in many different locations.

In order to cope with the lifting challenges involved in these construction projects, very efficient and powerful machines are needed, which incur minimal downtime and work cost effectively. This is where the experience of Terex Cranes comes into play.

What are the challenges for your cranes in the erection of wind turbines?

KM. Wind turbines may be located on-shore, near-shore or off-shore. Each location has its own specific requirements. For example, to erect wind turbines on-shore, heavy loads have to be lifted to a great height on a relatively short radius (eg. loads of 100t at 100m height and 20m radius). In order to meet these specific job requirements, our stand-

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ard configuration cranes are provided with additional equipment.

Wind turbines are getting larger and larger, and they are sometimes erected in areas where the terrain is rough and access is difficult. For example, there may be width restrictions on access roads for environmental reasons.

The knowledgeable Terex Cranes team has helped our customers deal with these specific challenges in various ways, for example by developing a special mid-section of the undercarriage for our 600t crawler crane, Terex Demag CC 2800-1. This ‘narrow track’ setup allows the crane to travel on narrow construction roads (5m width) from one wind turbine erection site to another and even to travel fully erected in quite hilly areas.

What heavy-lift challenges do you face in other construction areas?

KM. Other application areas include the erection and refurbishment of nuclear and conventional thermal power plants, the erection of gas condensation reactors and general construction.

Nuclear power plants are currently being erected to replace older units and to extend their output of electrical energy. Depending on the type of plant, two ‘monster-lifters’ can be required to lift an incredible 800t at a radius of 50m. In other cases they might lift only 700t but at a full 100m radius. These impressive loads are required for the power plants to be built on-schedule, since the optimum scenario involves prefabricating many components close to the place where they will later be required.

Conventional thermal power plants are also being built and this work is currently typical for central Europe and North America.

In many cases, existing plants are refurbished to increase efficiency and to meet improved environmental standards. The cranes used in these situations have to be very versatile to carry out the different tasks involved in

building the plant, such as erecting the support structure for the boiler unit.

As far as general construction is concerned, our big crawler cranes are used in a wide array of applications, such as lifting-in prefabricated highway parts or bridges. One recent example is a Terex Demag CC 6800 which was used to replace an old railway bridge in Nyköping, Sweden. Using conventional methods, the railway line would have been closed for more than a month. The use of our Terex Demag CC 6800 lattice boom crane with 1250t lifting capacity reduced this period to less than a week.

How is Terex Cranes positioned in the heavylifting market?

KM. Terex Cranes offers a full line of lifting equipment tailored to a broad range of lifting needs. As far as big crawler cranes are concerned, Terex Cranes offers highly efficient equipment which provides a great return on investment and can carry out particularly large lifts in infrastructure development.

Through its engineering support, Terex facilitates continuous improvement as well as special solutions that are developed to meet clients’ needs.

As Director of Research and Development for Terex Demag Mobile Cranes between 2002 and 2007, Klaus Meissner oversaw the development of many new telescopic mobile and lattice boom crawler cranes. In 2008, he took on his new role as Director for Terex Cranes Product Integrity.

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Phil Kidner fills EU Infrastructure in on the background of the TETRA standard and the recent advances in the communications space.

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errestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is a digital trunked mobile radio standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) with the purpose of meeting the needs of traditional Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) user organisations. What this means is that air interfaces, network interfaces, as well as services and facilities, are specified in sufficient detail to enable independent manufacturers to develop infrastructure and radio terminal products that are fully interoperable with each other. In other words, radio terminals from different manufacturers can operate on infrastructures created by other manufacturers.

This ability of full interoperability is a distinct advantage of the open standards developed by ETSI. And, as several independent manufacturers support the TETRA standard, this increases competition, provides second source security and allows a greater choice of terminal products for specific user applications.

What’s more, as the TETRA standard has been specifi cally developed to meet the needs of a wide variety of traditional PMR user organisations, it has a scaleable architecture allowing economic network deployments. Besides meeting the needs of traditional PMR user organisations, the TETRA standard has also been developed to meet the needs of Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) operators.

Essentially though, the TETRA standard is the communications standard for people that work in groups. It is for mission-critical, business-critical users, and it’s a standard that seeks to be a robust technology. When it was created we were working in the analogue world, and TETRA was marked as the first digital trunked technology for these users. Created in the early 1990s, TETRA has now spread to, at the last count, 106 countries around the world.

The original TETRA standard first envisaged by ETSI was known as the Phil Kidner TETRA Voice plus Data (V+D) standard.

Because of the need to further evolve and enhance TETRA, there needed to “The TETRA be some additional benefits made to standard has the original V+D standard, which is now been specifically known as TETRA Release 1. After identideveloped to meet fying what advancement were necessary TETRA Release 2 (TETRA 2) was standthe needs of a wide ardiSed. variety of user TETRA 2 included things like vocoder organisations” and the extension of, but was primarily about improved data-rates. Everything we do goes through an interoperability process so that when manufacturers are creating TETRA 2 products (or TEDS, Tetra Enhanced Data Service products), the users have confidence that the products from different manufacturers will interoperate. All the interoperation processes for TETRA 2 are now written and ready, we’re just waiting for the products; the first of which are being rolled-out later this year. In addition, next year there’s two notable contracts around the world that will see some of the first TEDS products: first in Norway with the Nordnet Network, and then a system in Johannesburg for their police force, which will coincide with the World Cup in South Africa.

All of this is part of the process of keeping TETRA up to date in the here and now, and we’re also looking to the future and keeping TETRA up to date in the future, and whether

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A GLOBAL REACH that’s either through broadband TETRA or through interfacing with some other technologies like LTE (Long Term Evolution) we, as an association, are encouraging ETSI to do that standardisation process.

A future look at the upcoming events of the TETRA Association.

The evolution of TETRA

Wireless China Industry Summit, September 2009 Beijing, China

We are now talking about the next evolution of TETRA, and whether it’s called TETRA Release 3 or not is just a detail, but ESTI have begun work on that standard. We’re not being complacent; we’re trying to keep TETRA as up to date as possible.

As TETRA is designed for people that work in groups, that obviously includes public safety, police officers, ambulance and fire, but it also involves people that work in utilities, people that work in oil and gas, and people that work in transport. In fact, the biggest sector in numbers of networks now is probably in transport. All the airports and metros in Asia, for instance, are going TETRA. And TETRA offers these organisations a digital trunk radio with extremely clear voice capabilities, it offers secure communications over the air interface, it can be encrypted, it is built to public safety standards and the equipment is very tough and robust. TETRA is both voice and data, so through voice it covers group calls, point-to-point calls and telephony calls through a gateway. Through data, its data rates cover the very small bits for updating positions and locations, right through to sending pictures. Then the TETRA 2 standard is an enhancement of that data, making a better use of it.

At the TETRA association, we really do two things. Oftentimes we are described as the marketing arm of ETSI, but that really doesn’t do

NEW RELEASES A closer look at the need for the TETRA Release 2 Wh TETRA While TRA Release 1 already offered a very comprehe comprehensive portfolio tfolio of services and facilities, as time progresses there became a need to evolve and enhance the technologies to better satisfy user requirements, ments, futureproof investments investm and ensure longe UMT longevity. Likee GSM moving to GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/3G, TE so needed to evolve to satisfy increasing user ddemand TETRA also w services and facilities, as well as gleaning the benefits of for new new techno technology.

As early as 1999, interest groups comprising both users and manufacturers within Technical Committee (TC) TETRA and the TETRA Association identified the need to enhance TETRA in several areas. Although the initial number of areas identified were very comprehensive, significant events in the telecommunications industry, combined with changing market needs, resulted in the several services and facilities being standardised at the end of 2005 as part of TETRA Release 2.

These included Trunked Mode Operation (TMO) Range Extension; Adaptive Multiple Rate (AMR) Voice Codec; Mixed Excitation Liner Predictive, enhanced (MELPe) Voice Codec; and TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS).

TETRA Moving Forward in India, September 2009 New Delhi, India Southern African TETRA Association Workshop and Exhibition, September 2009 Gauteng, South Africa TETRA Moving Forward in Russia, October 2009 Moscow, Russia TETRA Moving Forward in Chile, November 2009 Santiago, Chile TETRA Moving Forward in Brazil, November 2009 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

justice to everything we do. One of the things we do that’s very important is manage the interoperability process. So TETRA signifies the first time in the PMR world that interoperability has ever been thought of or implemented, and we now have about 20 TETRA manufacturers who participated in IOP testing. If you take the UK as an example, the UK has the Motorola network, which supports terminals from Motorola, fro from EADS, from Sepura, from Selex, from Cleartone and from lots of diffe different manufacturers. What that has meant is that it has created a mark market that manufacturers want to be involved in, because they see it going global.

The other side of it is that for the users. All that competition means that the price of the product is driven down, which is clearly a strong incentive to buy it.

The other thing that we do market TETRA. For example the Association has set-up events across the globe and we put on conferences and exhibitions to demonstrate what TETRA can do for organisations.

Take the TETRA World Congress, for example, this year held in Munich, Germany, back in May. The event is the fl agship event of the TETRA community, and in Munich we exceeded all of our expectations once again, with a number of registrations greater than we have seen anywhere before. In fact, there was in excess of 2500 attendees in Munich and we are now anticipating that number to grow again in Singapore, which is where the new World Congress will be held in 2010.

Phil Kidner is Chief Executive of the TETRA Association, which he has been involved with the last three years.

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CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS

STATE OF EMERGENCY The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials’ Bob Smith explains the technological and human challenges facing emergency responders.

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hese are interesting times in the emergency response space. Some of the current computer aided dispatch systems are starting to add things that in the past were optional bells and whistles into their base models. We’re seeing computer aided dispatch systems that are coming standard with AVL systems with mapping and GIS components, even with some level of records management, whether it’s a typical law enforcement records management or a prison or corrections records management system. We’re seeing more case systems now that are all encompassing. Things that have been done in the past as bits and pieces are now becoming part of the basic package. It’s a good thing because it’s more cost effective for the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), but more importantly, it streamlines the operations.

One of the biggest hurdles that we’re challenged with right now is interoperability when it comes to computer aided dispatch systems and data. We’ve had people beating the drum for radio interoperability for years, but people are just starting to realise that data interoperability is just as important. For example, if a CAD system can’t talk to a CAD system in another PSAP, then they’re potentially not as effective as they could be, so we’re seeing some CAD systems that are starting to tackle this by incorporating other components into their basic system.

There are more standards being proposed and developed as well, and once the technology is in place we would be able to enable a huge amount of improvements. An example would be, if you are in PSAP A and you take a wireless call from someone who happens to be in the next county but because of the technology of mobile telephones,

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the call bounces into you. Rather than taking their information and calling another PSAP or transferring that caller, with this new technology you would actually be able to enter the data into your own CAD system and push it through to the correct PSAP. There it would immediately be displayed as a call logged into their system.

A further example would be that if you are in PSAP A and you have an incident where you need mutual aid from PSAP B, rather than taking the time to call that other PSAP and say, ‘We need the fire department or the ambulance service or this many police officers to go here and this is what we’ve got going on’ you would be able to push that data out to PSAP B, straight into their CAD system. Again this populates the field on the dispatcher’s end as a call already in their system and then they just dispatch it, just as they would if a call taker took the call on their end. With that standard out there and other standards being developed, it’s just a matter of time before we are able to achieve these things.

In fact I think we’re looking at no more than a couple of years before we achieve this because, as CAD vendors improve their systems, put their new products and newer versions and additions on the market, they’ll start to incorporate these things that the public safety side has determined that we need. It’s a proactive approach versus reactive where we’re pushing out to them saying, ‘This is the kind of thing we need to develop and work on,’ rather than them coming to us and saying, ‘Here’s what we’ve built and we will sell it to you.’ This change is really important. For years it’s always been the commercial side of the industry pushing things. They have had a baseline concept of what PSAPs need and they have had historical data they have collected and put into a system. Now the roles have shifted.

As there are more and more CAD vendors on the market now, everyone is striving to come to the top. But in order to do that they’re getting much more intimate with the PSAPs and learning more about what we need and what we are doing. The result of that is the PSAPs are starting

“In truth, some of the most significant challenges we’re currently facing aren’t technological, but human” to dictate what CAD systems should and shouldn’t be able to do.

In truth, some of the most significant challenges we’re currently facing aren’t technological, but human. The biggest thing right now is bodies in seats. We have a tremendous staffing and retention crisis in public safety communications. In the United States, for example, the shortage of nurses and teachers is fairly well known; by contrast the public safety communications industry is experiencing a 19 percent turnover rate, which means we are in an even greater crisis, but fewer people know about it. The problem with that is that there are PSAPs around the world training people that may not stay with them more than a year or two; and what happens is that a tremendous amount of time and money can be invested in this person just to see them turn around and leave. But more importantly, the greater impact is you’ll have PSA’s that have an entire staff with less than two to three years’ experience in their position.

About APCO APCO International is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to public safety communications. It has been around since 1935, which is considerably longer than any other public safety communications association. Today, more than 15,000 members rely on APCO for their professional needs – from examining standards and issues to providing education, products and services.

There are many reasons why these problems are happening: obviously you have the typical shift work issues, such as working midnight shifts, weekends, holidays, being away from your family, and all of the things that come with any form of shift work, but the situation of understaffing makes these problems even worse. Today we have a tremendous amount of overtime because the fewer people on staff, the greater the need for overtime and people are working a tremendous amount of overtime to compensate for the fact that their isn’t enough staff. This perpetuates a pretty cycle. Everyone is short staffed and so the people they do have burn out faster. And then they leave.

There’s also the inherent nature of the job. There is a huge amount of stress that comes with dealing with people for up to 12 hours a day who are in life or death situations and knowing that a single number pushed wrong, or one simple word misstated on the radio, could potentially cost someone their life. The fact is nobody ever calls the emergency services because they’re having a good day.

On top of all these issues there are also issues with the industry overall. For example, public safety communications personnel are typically very low paid and the salaries are not commensurate with the workload. Also, they are not very well respected in the public safety industry because, for many years, the telecommunicators were simply secretaries, answering the phone, taking messages and passing it on.

Thankfully we are starting to overcome that prejudice with certain levels of certifications and standards and professionalism within the industry, but there’s still a hint of that around.

Beyond that, 911, 999, 112, wherever you are in the world, the problem it is that the communications component of public safety is transparent to the end user. We don’t have the big red fire engines and the flashing blue lights, we don’t have the medical bags and the kits, in other words: you never see us. You may talk to us, but the people that actually come out to help you are the people you identify with. We’re completely

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bout a year ago, APCO International partnered with IJIS Institute, a nonprofit organisation for commercial information technology corporations. APCO International received a grant from the Department of Justice and launched something called the Public Safety Data Interoperability Initiative.

The concept of the initiative is to bring the commercial providers together with the public safety professionals, allowing them to be more proactive so that, as they’re developing the systems of tomorrow, they’re incorporating safety professionals’ needs. “It’s a large project and we’ve put out 11 standards already that deal with data interoperability between basic CAD systems, records management systems, databases and GIS systems,” explains Smith. “Everything data interoperability-wise is being looked at by this project. It includes public safety personnel, fire service personnel, EMS, law enforcement personnel. We have brought everybody that could be potentially affected by data interoperability together and with the IJIS Institute have brought the value of having the Microsoft’s, the Cisco’s, the Sun Microsystem’s and all the big IT providers out there to the table.”

In fact, the partnership has been in place for almost two years now and is starting to see results in some of the work being done. The CAD vendors are opening their arms and embracing these standards that are being developing. “In fact, says Smith, “It may even speed up the process of having a higher level of data interoperability on the public safety side.”

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transparent, so there’s obviously a public education campaign needed there as well. Today though, this transparency, coupled with all of those other factors means there is a real inability to get hold of those highly effective people and then keep hold of them once you’ve got them.

There are a few things that we can do to improve the situation. The easiest is just raising salary levels, but that’s not always feasible, especially in the current economic climate. However, there other things that can be done that are just as simple (and in some cases that are relatively cost effective or even free). Every year in April, for example, we run in the US the National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, an event that is recognised by most states and has received Presidential and Congressional declarations.

It’s all about taking time to appreciate public safety telecommunicators and making them feel the respect they deserve. Through the event we are able to publicise an entire industry of highly dedicated, professional public safety communications personnel. The ability to do that costs next to nothing, but can have a big impact on morale.

Beyond that, it’s about reaching out and explaining to people exactly what the telecommunicators do so that it becomes a more attractive career option. You would be hard pressed to find a kid anywhere in the world that says, ‘When I grow up I want to be a emergency services dispatcher.’ Educating them to what we do and how we do it is really important because then we will get more qualified candidates applying for these positions and we that we can rely on them to make it through training, become an effective part of the staff and ultimately stay with the industry for a decent amount of time.

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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Private conversations Sectra’s Michael Bertilsson tells EU Infra about the importance of secure TETRA communication.

Security is a major issue for many TETRA users. What options are available for those seeking to encrypt and protect their critical communications?

Michael Bertilsson. Sectra has developed a crypto solution on a smart card that protects voice communications from eavesdropping between TETRA terminals from different vendors. This means that users can choose terminals based on their own preferences and maintain shared security. Our crypto solution was recently launched at the TETRA World Congress and is the first promoting safe and efficient cooperation among various public safety agencies.

Leading TETRA terminal vendors also provide communications security but solely between their own terminals. Without our crypto solution, all TETRA users are limited to using one type of terminal to ensure secure communications.

What is Sectra’s background? Are you new in this line of business?

MB. Sectra is focusing 100 percent on security and our expertise is within encryption. We are new in the TETRA world but have been serving European government authorities and defence departments with voice encryption since the 90s.

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Today, we have customers in more than half of all EU member states using our personal voice encryptor Tiger to protect their telephony from eavesdropping. We have established cooperation with leading international security bodies and have important security approvals from EU and NATO.

Protection Group (SFPG). This means that our smart card crypto can be integrated in virtually any terminal on the market. All major terminal vendors either support or will be supporting this recommendation. Today, we work together with Motorola, EADS and Sepura and our crypto solution fully supports terminals from these leading vendors.

Are there any examples of where TETRA crypto solutions have been successfully deployed in real-world situations?

MB. We have developed this crypto for users in the Swedish public safety network in close cooperation with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration. The Swedish public safety network, based on the international TETRA standard, is being built up in Sweden through 2010. This network is used by government authorities, county councils, municipalities and commercial parties involved in public safety, security and health as well as by defence forces.

From July 1 2009, the EU presidency will be taken over by Sweden and Sectra’s crypto solution for TETRA will be used by public safety agencies, such as the police, to secure critical communications. n

How important is it that TETRA networks balance security with flexibility?

MB. It is crucial to have secure communications among public safety agencies such as the police, customs and emergency services. These agencies need to protect vital information that is essential for society. Efficient cooperation requires a crypto solution that is flexible and supports the most commonly used TETRA terminals. In an emergency situation you cannot be dependent upon having the same type of equipment for secure communication. It is much smarter to have an independent crypto solution.

What is the secret of the flexibility provided by Sectra?

MB. Sectra’s crypto solution on smart card is designed to be used with any TETRA terminal supporting the standard recommendation 02 & 08 from the TETRA Association’s Security and Fraud

Michael Bertilsson is President of Sectra Communications. He holds an MSc in Computer Science from the Institute of Technology at Linköping University and a PhD in Information Theory. His doctorial thesis dealt with cryptology and how to share secrets.

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DEEP COVER EU Infrastructure investigates the big issues currently facing the protective coatings industry.

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ROUNDTABLE

What applications within the infrastructure sector are your products used for?

Alexander Risch. There are a multitude of applications related to the use of our products in the coatings sector. One typical application is its use in electro deposition paints and automotive fillers. Neuburg Siliceous Earth stands out as functional filler because of its excellent properties in anti-corrosion coatings, powder coatings and UV-cured wood coatings. Additionally, there are many other application fields in the coating sector, where our products Sillitin and the surface-treated Aktisil are successfully used.

Petri Järvinen. We are able to offer a full range of products and paint systems for the construction and protective coatings sector, not forgetting extensive services and support for the whole supply chain, from architects to facility owners. We offer help and support for choosing paint systems, technical service for application and inspection, and instructions for maintenance. We want to promote economical, environmentally compliant and user-friendly solutions for our customers operating in these sectors.

How do your products address the specific challenges placed on them by the infrastructure sector?

PJ. There has been a trend that customers are looking for long lasting, high-quality systems to protect infrastructure, and the awareness of VOC legislation has increased the demand for products and systems that fulfil this criteria. But due to the current economic situation, many customers have started to look at low cost materials, which is an alarming trend that will cause higher maintenance cost for facility owners in the future.

Despite this, Tikkurila continues to focus on marketing high-quality products, not forgetting the total economy of the painting process for contractors and facility owners. We are also able to offer a water-borne paint system for the C4 corrosivity category that is fully cured in eight hours, with the help of our Dry Tech technology.

AR. The market for protective coatings is huge and we would like to have a bigger stake in the area of marine paints and anti-corrosion coatings. Special requirements, which are necessary in these applications, are gained with our prod-

ucts. Here I would mention in particular a good chemical resistance, especially against acids and salt water, good weather permeability and anti-corrosion protection, and during processing an excellent dispersibility, as well as very little tendency towards sedimentation.

Petri Järvinen is Vice President in Tikkurila’s SBU Industrial Coatings, where he is responsible for Technology and Business Support functions. He now has close to 30 years’ experience in this specific area, having worked in a variety of different positions in the paint and coatings industry.

R&D is a big part of your operations. What are your current areas of focus in terms of new product development?

AR. We work with our own application technology department for coatings and our technicians are always working on finding new applications for our filler. Due to this know-how, we can support our customers in their development; we compile suggested formulations for many applications and we publish all results of our research projects in the form of technical reports on our website. The latest projects have been in the area of ST polymers for elastic sealants, road marking paints and pipeline coatings. This year we have started a considerable study in the application field of water-based wood coatings.

“Properties like good corrosion protection for ships are required to reduce the cost of preventive maintenance and preservation” Alexander Risch

Alexander Risch joined Hoffmann Mineral GmbH & Co. KG in 1999. In 2001 he became responsible for the business unit of Toll Manufacturing, a service that includes all kinds of modification of inorganic raw materials for different industries, realised with the production facilities and knowledge of Hoffmann Mineral. Since 2006, Risch has been Head of Marketing and Sales, responsible for all sales activities worldwide.

PJ. The driving force for our R&D has been the installation and production of VOC directives, which means that our main focus has been in high-solids and water-borne technologies that help customers meet the requirements set up in these directives. Alongside the environmental aspects, we always take into account the cost efficiency of our products, meaning shorter overcoating time between paint layers and the reduction of the number of layers in the protective paint systems. In addition, new high-solid products have enabled us to reduce the number of paint layers without sacrificing the corrosion protection performance.

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We have also made a breakthrough in UV curing technology by developing a patented UVITEC drying device based on UV-led technology. The UVITEC technology offers many benefits for customers, such as energy savings, better surface quality and lower curing temperatures, and has won us a special award from the RadTech Europe Association.

“In the long-term, raw material development will enable new, innovative functionality coatings” Petri Järvinen

The EU Commission’s VOC Directive and REACH legislation mean that compliance with regulatory requirements is now more important than ever for those in the paints and coatings business. What demands is this placing on the industry?

AR. Our filler, Neuburg Siliceous Earth, is a natural mineral raw material: a mixture of amorphous and crypto-crystalline silica and

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lamellar kaolinite, which was generated more than 95 million years ago in a part of South Germany. Our products have not been chemically processed or treated, and this is why the REACH registration is not applicable for us.

Regarding the VOC Directive, our developments in coating exactly support these regulatory requirements to reduce the volatile content intensively. The above-mentioned projects regarding powder coating and waterbased wood coating show this in an excellent way. It is of great importance to focus intensively on the reduction of contaminant loads, especially in the application of paints that are used at home or that come into contact with people.

PJ. Environmental issues have always been very important for us, as our main factory has been Vantaa, Finland from the very beginning.

Also, the legislation concerning paints and coatings has been much more demanding in our main market area of the Nordic countries than in other parts of Europe, and we have always wanted to be ahead of legislation concerning environmental and safety issues.

What do you see as the biggest challenges in the protective coatings industry over the next few years? And what are the biggest opportunities?

PJ. From a paint technology point of view, I refer to my previous answers; but environmentally compliant products and cost efficiency are the driving forces in the near future as well. I also believe that in the long-term, raw material development will enable the development of new, innovative functionality coatings, meaning totally new properties for protective coatings.

But what can be seen is that the importance of services and distribution are increasing in the protective coating sector. Our customers want to focus on their core businesses. This requires more support and consultancy from paint suppliers with architects, engineers, painting contractors and facility owners.

AR. In my opinion, marine coatings are a big challenge. We should not forget that properties like good corrosion protection for ships are required to reduce the cost of preventive maintenance and preservation. This is essential for the cost-intensive shipping market. Nevertheless, the powder coatings market is also a big opportunity. The EU regulation regarding the ecological contamination caused by anti-corrosion pigments was the focus of one of our latest studies, and we were successful in developing a formulation based on Neuburg Siliceous Earth, by which one can reach the limited values under the same excellent performance. This aim will also be very important for the future. n

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VIEW FROM AMERICA

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Situation critical From collapsed bridges to leaking dams, American infrastructure is facing real decline. EU Infrastructure’s Matt Buttell asks, “What’s next?”

Spaghetti Bowl, the Circle Interchange Chicago,

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lso known as the Spaghetti Bowl, the Circle Interchange near downtown Chicago, Illinois, sits between the Dan Ryan, Eisenhower and Kennedy expressways, its name referring to the curving ramps that appear to form concentric rings when viewed from above. It is an intricate design, logically defined as a stack interchange, allowing vehicles to turn off in all directions, with each of the four main lines having a single entrance and exit to serve both directions of the crossing roadways.

The Circle Interchange is also notoriously known for its lengthy traffic jams: local reports often reference miles of cars populating the junction. On the day of writ-

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ing this article, a police car was reported to have “hydroplaned into a wall” by the Chicago Sun Times and despite the fact that there were no injuries, hours of delays occurred. Since 2004 the interchange has also been rated as America’s third-worst traffic bottleneck.

Approximately 300,000 vehicles use the junction every day, losing a combined 25 million hours stuck in its jams each year.

It’s a pretty harsh reality, but the Circle Interchange is just one example of the state of US infrastructure and its extreme need of a radical overhaul. But now, even as Obama’s stimulus money and the forthcoming federal transportation bill promises to provide big injections for roads, bridges and transit lines, experts warn that looming budget deficits could still make it difficult to de-

liver the long-term investment that most people believe is necessary.

“Usually, until there’s a disaster, you don’t see this kind of political will, this push to make something happen,” said Ramzi Mahmood, Chair of the Civil Engineering department at California State University, in a recent statement. And even then the impact can be short-lived. Take the levee failure in New Orleans in 2005, for example. While at the time this led to widespread outrage, many of America’s levees remain unaccounted for, without an index of stability, let alone an inspection. And look at the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis two years ago, following which there has been little attempt to increase the rate of repair or replacement

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for the thousands of these structurally deficient roadways.

However this year the implosion of the US economy seems to be compelling infrastructure reform, and the timing, experts say, is perfect. “Infrastructure investment is also an investment in our quality of life,” explains Mahmood, “and at the same time it creates a lot of opportunities and jobs that are needed to really prime this economy.”

Sustainability While it remains the case that no one can predict which bridge, levee or water main will fail next, many problems are widely known, and work is long overdue. After all, much of the modern-day infrastructure in American was built at the start of the20th century during the greatest age of construction the world has ever seen. Iconic landmarks such as the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge, along with the interstate highway systems, were all completed during this investment-crazy, prolific era; and all of this was closely matched by the development of thousands of smaller bridges, water tunnels and roadways across the nation. The truth, however, is that these investments were made too long ago, and Americans need to face up to the fact that their infrastructure is in real trouble.

Experts argue that while new information technology, fresh engineering and advanced materials will be able to help the US not just

Brooklyn Bridge, New York As one of the oldest suspension bridges still being used in the United States, the Brooklyn Bridge is considered as ‘structurally deficient’ under the federal rating systems. But while officials do not fear a collapse of the bridge – the main span appears to be sound – some of the approaches to the structure have been marred by rusting steel and deteriorating road decks. Repairs are due in 2010, symbolising that a country serious about its infrastructure is prepared to take care of its national icons.

restore but improve its infrastructure, America must first gather the drive to get there.

Back in February of this year, for example, at the National Governor Association’s Winter Meeting, Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, discussed with fellow governors the need for a stronger infrastructure across the US – and, more importantly, the reason why this must result in a sustainable future for the nation. “Put simply, our infrastructure is in bad shape,” he said in his opening speech. “From nearly 2000 ‘high hazard potential’ dams, to the 60 percent of urban roadways that are in a ‘less than fair’ condition, to the 72,000 bridges that are considered ‘structurally deficient’, it is not hyperbole to say that our infrastructure is crumbling before our eyes.”

Also noted by Katz is the fact that in addition to its condition, the very design of America’s infrastructure is quickly becoming obsolete. The nation’s air traffic control system, for example, is so outdated that it is considered one of the primary reasons why the US has been unable to make a dent in its airport congestion problems. And transit systems continue to lay off hundreds of workers every year because they neither have the ability to cope with skyrocketing demand nor the resources to operate the existing system.

Then there are the American water systems, currently in such bad condition that leaking pipes lose seven billion gallons of clean drinking water every day, and, further to this,

today’s average American driver is wasting 26 gallons of fuel each year due to traffic congestion. This adds up to three billion gallons every year, which is the equivalent of one-fifth of a year’s imported oil from the Persian Gulf. In fact, infrastructure-related expenditures continue to cost American households over a trillion dollars annually, mostly in categories such as utilities and transportation. After housing, transportation is the second-largest component of the average family’s household budget, with 18 cents out of every US dollar spent here.

The biggest issue for Katz is that the federal government is absent where it should be present, and is failing to lead on infrastructure issues of national significance. As he explains: “We are simply incapable of focusing on infrastructure issues that transcend state borders and therefore we’re not experiencing the same kinds of economic impacts from transformational programs like the interstates […] the social impacts from iconic programs like rural electrification […] or the sustainability benefits from air and water pollution control programs in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Katz also details the ongoing problem of compartmentalising policies on all levels. He argues that while families understand that issues related to transportation, housing and education are all intrinsically linked, policymakers continue to keep these issues separated by placing them in

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Dover Bridge, Idaho

CAL CRITI

In 2008, a 75 x 75 cm piece of the Dover Bridge’s deck was found hanging by its rebar, and in the National Bridge Inventory the bridge scored an appallingly low sufficiency rating of two out of 100.

5000 vehicles continue to use the bridge everyday, putting drivers at risk. To replace the bridge would cost US$25 million, but such funding is yet to materialise.

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specialised agencies. “In stark contrast to this,” says Katz, “our global counterparts are beginning to provide the kind of leadership on infrastructure that many are now calling on the US government to demonstrate. And we need to learn from our global competitors in order to get more strategic, integrated and disciplined.”

In Canada, India, South Africa and Italy, for instance, governments have introduced specialist units throughout various agencies to assist with the expanding opportunities for public/private partnerships. Elsewhere, France, has recently merged its Ministry of Transport with Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development; in Australia there is now an overarching Department of Infrastructure; Japan links infrastructure with land development and tourism, all in one agency; and other countries, including the UK and Germany, are already establishing intricate networks of data, metrics, tools and techniques so that they can make educated infrastructural investment decisions based on clear priorities. “In America, change needs to come,” says Katz.

And therein lies the biggest issue of all.

America once had a system that was the

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Three years ago, experts announced that in any given year there is a one in six chance that the Herbert Hoover Dike will fail, releasing waters from Lake Okeechobee. Such an event would result in South Florida’s water supply becoming contaminated and would leave over 40,000 waterside residents flooded. In 2008, a 1000foot long stretch of treacherously eroded land was found near stateowned floodgates north of Okeechobee. Nonetheless, for the 2009 budget year, the government only allotted half of the requested money needed for improvements.

envy of the world. Now the country is better known for its congested highways, second-rate ports, third-rate passenger trains and a rather archaic air traffic control system. The majority of America’s greatest projects of the 20th century – dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts – are at or are beyond their designated life span. The haunting images of contorted pavements, stranded vehicles, twisted girders and heroic rescues that continue to punctuate our news reports following the buckling of a bridge or the breaking of the levees stand as a

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harsh reminder that this infrastructure cannot be taken for granted.

The fact is that America can afford to have world-class infrastructure, but first it needs to publicly acknowledge the responsibility of neglecting the bridges, roads and other essential hardware that have for too long gone unloved. Then, and only then, can the country hold its leaders accountable for setting priorities and for policing what is required to repair its already fragile infrastructure.

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IN REVIEW Hot off the press

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From climate change, to waste management and sustainability, EU Infrastructure takes a quick look at what some current enviromental books have on offer

The Green Guide For Businesses The Ultimate Environment Handbook for Businesses of All Sizes, by Chris Goodall A whole heap of businesses claim to be ‘green’ but how much of this is true is anyone’s guess.

Slashing carbon footprint is about more than just switching to a few low-energy light bulbs – it’s about changing your whole mindset. Author Chris Goodall, an expert on climate change solutions, guides you through cutting carbon and costs with advice on everything from ‘green’ computing and data centres to recycling and reducing office travel. It also features scores of case studies to help you learn from other people’s successes and mistakes.

EU Infrastructure says: An informative book that illustrates how making a few simple changes can have a massive impact on your carbon output. A good read.

Fixing Climate

The Story of Climate Science – And How to Stop Global Warming, by Robert Kunzig and Wallace Broecker With Broecker as his guide, award-winning science writer Robert Kunzig looks back at Earth’s volatile climate history so as to shed light on the challenges ahead. Ice ages, planetary orbits, a giant ‘conveyor belt’ in the ocean … it’s a riveting story full of maverick thinkers, extraordinary discoveries and an urgent blueprint for action. Fixing Climate explains why we need not just to reduce emissions but to start removing our carbon waste from our atmosphere. And in a thrilling last section of the book, we learn how this could become reality, using ‘artificial trees’ and underground storage.

EU Infrastructure says: A fascinating account of how we have arrived at a point where climate change is no longer preventable. A compelling read for anyone wishing to understand the biggest challenge of our age.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

Why the World Needs a Green Revolution by

Thomas L. Friedman Thomas Friedman’s bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalisation in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilising climate change and rising competition for energy – both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. Friedman proposes that an ambitious strategy (which he calls Geo-Greenism) is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make us all healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive and more secure.

EU Infrastructure says: Hot, Flat and Crowded is classic Friedman – fearless, incisive, forwardthinking and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today. Here, Friedman assesses the state of the world environment and what we should be doing to stop it getting much, much worse.

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PHOTO FINISH A picture is worth a thousand words.

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Two world leaders contemplate a major reconstruction job.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and US President Barack Obama survey a damaged government building in the centre of L’Aquila during the G8 summit on July 8, 2009. The building was destroyed by a powerful earthquake that hit the town in April.

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