The past year has seen the issue of infrastructure rarely out of the headlines and the industry looks to be winning the argument over its importance to the economy and society generally, says Andy Walker in his editor's comment in the November/December issue of the Infrastructure Intelligence magazine.

As we move ever closer towards the end of another year, it’s traditional to remark on how quickly the previous 12 months has passed. That’s certainly been the case in 2017 for infrastructure. I think that’s a good thing because one of the things that has made the year fly by has been the fact that infrastructure has rarely been out of the headlines, with government and the public seeing it as crucial to economic and social progress.

As AECOM’s Richard Robinson says in this issue (p4), the task now is to ensure that the government does not waiver from its planned infrastructure delivery programme. The industry needs to raise its game too and we report on research from Arcadis that says that UK construction needs to double its output to achieve national infrastructure targets (p8). So, some work to be done there then.

We couldn’t end the year without taking another look at Brexit and we reveal the results of a new survey that shows that the consultancy and engineering sector will be hit hard if access to the European single market is not maintained after the UK leaves the EU (p7). We also examine the environmental impact of Brexit on businesses too (p15).

Elsewhere we report on a fascinating reverse mentoring pilot scheme that is addressing the skills gap in the industry (p10-11) and look at the rise and rise of BIM as the industry gets more digital. Our centre page spread celebrates the fantastic engineering marvel that is the Queensferry Crossing (p16-18) and we even take time out to recommend the ideal festive gift for anyone working in construction (p6).

As is customary in our last issue of 2017, let me be the first to wish all our readers all the best for the festive season and a prosperous, happy and peaceful 2018.

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