Skip to main content

CIRIA's Civil Infrastructure Initiative

Why Civil Infrastructure?

CIRIA’s Civil Infrastructure initiatives will facilitate cross-sector dialogue, addressing challenges faced by industry in delivering new, and maintaining existing, infrastructure.

The UK Government has highlighted the need for a long-term infrastructure investment plan, to ensure that Britain can compete in the global race for growth. Together with capital investment for new infrastructure to meet increasing demand, there remains the challenge of maintaining and modernising the existing, ageing and sometimes failing, infrastructure on which we depend.

Following the formation of Infrastructure UK, the release of the joint Government and industry "Industrial Strategy for Construction" (2013), and together with the strategic view of the Government’s Infrastructure Pipeline of major infrastructure projects and related skills requirements, is the need for a coordinated effort to ensure that research and innovation is both promoted and harnessed. 

Why CIRIA?

CIRIA is recognised as a hub for thought leadership and facilitating collaboration across the construction supply chain. CIRIA’s long standing expertise in research management and the production of industry guidance has resulted in a reputation for high quality, authoritative and widely used reports. Our good practice guidance covers both the principles of sustainable whole-life infrastructure asset design and management, and technical guidance on the management of key assets such as bridges, tunnels, embankments, dams, culverts and reservoirs.

However, CIRIA aims to do more. The age of ‘digital design engineering’ and modern methods of construction can bring significant opportunities to modernise the industry and deliver infrastructure faster, at lower cost, and with lower emissions.

With the new civil infrastructure group initiatives, CIRIA aims to build on its reputation for authoritative good practice guidance in civil engineering, and use its independent status and industry reach to:
  • Facilitate a cross-sector dialogue between infrastructure clients in order to identify common challenges & opportunities.  
  • Identify and develop opportunities to transform current practice aligned with the joint Government and Industry ‘Construction 2025’ themes and targets.  
  • Provide a shared platform for engagement in industry leadership activities.  
  • Identify needs and opportunities for new infrastructure-focused CIRIA activities.  
Through its new civil infrastructure theme, CIRIA will benefit from its unique position to enable joined-up thinking, providing important guidance and knowledge-sharing through a series of activities including round-table meetings, seminars and conferences.

Please contact Dr Andy Moores or Loretta von der Tann for further information on how to get involved.

Leadership

CIRIA is pleased to announce the launch of the National Infrastructure Client Leadership Group bringing together some of the largest UK infrastructure providers from the transport and utilities sectors.

The group will build on CIRIA’s extensive track record in infrastructure asset management and infrastructure resilience work and aims.

Founding members of the National Infrastructure Client Leadership Group include: Crossrail, Environment Agency, Gatwick Airport, Highways Agency, London Underground, Northumbrian Water and Thames Water.

Our members are integral to our work and come from all construction stakeholder groups, covering both the supply and demand sides of the industry, as well as public sector champions, regulators and academia.

It is intended that this new client working group will  provide industry leadership to transform good practice in the construction industry, aligned with the themes of the Industrial Strategy for Construction (2013) and the ‘Construction 2025 vision’. The group identified a number of opportunities for new collaborative activities in 2014, which are now being taken forward with subsequent meetings of the client working group and engagement with the wider supply chain.
 
Acting as a focal point and independent forum for industry innovation and improvement, CIRIA will engage with policy groups, government sponsors and regulators, clients, consultants, contractors and suppliers. This engagement will provide our members with a unique insight into new and emerging developments as well as the opportunity to influence industry direction and development.

“This is a great opportunity to use CIRIA to bring together the major client organisations who are delivering capital investment programmes and are facing the same challenges. We all need to achieve better value, deliver quicker with greater certainty and sharing in this forum will assist in all of these areas.”
Doug Waters, Continuous Improvement & Sustainability Leader, Development Team, Gatwick Airport and Chair of National Infrastructure Client Leadership Group

+44 (0)7933 181 765    |    [email protected]                                                                  X (Twitter)    |    LinkedIn     |    Blog