A new report has called on government to step up the maintenance and renewal of existing assets to safeguard aging infrastructure.

The Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure report, by the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC), also says regulators and asset owners should appoint chief engineers to their boards.

Plus, it says asset owners, the government and regulators need to start a national conversation on management of critical infrastructure around the costs and trade-offs required for effective maintenance.

In the new report, NEPC led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, calls on the government to urgently prioritise, invest in and reform the management of the UK’s ageing infrastructure.  Flood defences, water infrastructure, roads, bridges and railways have all been looked at  in the publication, which was developed by expert engineers and asset managers.  

Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure highlights how climate change and extreme weather events are stressing structures like roads, bridges, water systems and flood defences. Without timely and planned intervention, emergency outages and disruption to critical services will become more frequent, says the report. This could impact public safety, the economy and the environment. 

The report says challenges associated with ageing infrastructure are illustrated by recent closures of major landmarks such as 67-year-old Clifton Bridge in Nottingham, 138-year-old Hammersmith Bridge in London and 160-year-old Nuneham Viaduct near Oxford.

The resulting lack of access to these essential transport links has caused widespread gridlock for people living and working in those areas. Many of these assets were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries and are now operating at, or near, capacity.  

The report also highlights that infrastructure assets don’t operate in isolation. They are interlinked, so a failure in the water system can cause a flood that blocks roads, railways, impacts homes and potentially even power supplies. Failures can also accelerate over time, causing sudden rapid degradation at certain points, influenced by factors such as materials, environment and usage. 

Reviving our Ageing Infrastructure sets out a practical, evidence-based roadmap for a new proactive approach to managing the UK’s assets.  The report recommends 15 urgent actions, including: 

• Government and asset-owners need to change their approach to looking after our national assets from “fix it when it breaks" to “monitor and maintain”.  This means investing more in maintaining and renewing existing infrastructure to extend its serviceable life and maximise value for money. 
• Fragmented regulation and funding mechanisms hinder coordinated action, so a cross-government review of funding and accounting models is needed, to support long-term management.
• The public can play a key role in this change of thinking around maintenance.  Asset owners, the government and regulators need to start a national conversation on management of our critical infrastructure around the costs and trade-offs required for effective maintenance. 
• Regulators and asset owners should appoint chief engineers to their boards, who have the technical expertise to manage those assets and the risks they face.  
• Professional bodies should champion infrastructure stewardship skills and technical expertise at all levels.
• The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and its counterparts in the devolved nations should establish frameworks for secure sharing of data on the condition and performance of assets and infrastructure networks to enable digital innovation.

The report has also identified a lack of technical and specialised skills which is an urgent priority.  It notes that up to 90,000 workers are expected to leave the rail sector through retirement or attrition by 2030 and  23% of engineers in the water industry are set to retire in the next five years.

The report concludes that proactive maintenance and renewal can offer excellent return on investment, and the overall cost of maintenance tends to be lower if it is planned and executed in a timely manner, because cost increases tend to accelerate once assets deteriorate beyond a certain threshold.   

Dr Steve Denton, Royal Academy of Engineering vice president and chair of the NEPC Working Group on Ageing Infrastructure, said: “Much of the UK’s essential infrastructure was built decades ago and many assets need immediate attention to ensure they can continue to support the services on which people and the economy depend. After years of underinvestment in maintenance, our approach to managing our ageing infrastructure must change.

“By following the recommendations in this report and investing wisely in our existing assets, we can safeguard essential services, support economic growth and develop world-leading expertise and technologies sustaining infrastructure stewardship.

“Our existing infrastructure is too often taken for granted and it is only when essential services are compromised because of unplanned closures or maintenance that it gets attention. This will only become more acute with accelerating decline, heightened demand and the impact of climate change. We must value our existing infrastructure and those who maintain and manage it more highly.”

Click here to read the full report.