Digital transformation across infrastructure must move at pace
Chief Digital Officer at Costain, Nathan Marsh, has been speaking about the importance of driving digital transformation at pace across infrastructure.
Nathan joined our Infrastructure 2020 forum at HSF in London last February describing the challenge of joining up physical and digital infrastructure.
He is now moving the debate towards the recognition of the value of digital transformation across infrastructure to UK society. He stated that it is not just about improving people's lives in terms of job creation and productivity but also very much about building better resilience for our economy, the environment and communities'.
Costain has announced its role as a strategic technology partner for a new programme designed to drive innovation across major transport infrastructure projects in the UK. This was launched recently by Minister of State, Andrew Stephenson for the Department of Transport, who said:
'As we begin our green recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic, the need to level up our country and boost economic prosperity has only increased - and we are determined that we don't just rebuild, we rebuild smarter'.
Nathan commented:
'Costain is proud to be a strategic technology partner in this industry collaboration that will help accelerate the infrastructure sector towards being 'digital by default' - a key to ensuring we maximise innovation that will optimise existing infrastructure, national development programmes and the UK's net zero carbon journey'.
The 'Transport Infrastructure Efficiency Strategy Living Lab' (TIES Living Lab) is a transformative collaboration aimed at harnessing the vast quantities of intelligence that UK infrastructure projects generate. The programme in which organisations share information and demonstrate best practice is thought to help the way the UK revolutionises its approach to major transport projects. Costain is the technology partner responsible for driving the delivery and implementation of digital technology solutions to achieve early benefits.
Infrastructure schemes generate vast amounts of intelligence that could be applied to other projects to improve their efficiency. The Living Lab provides a means of harnessing this collective information to that we can explore, analyse and learn lessons from it for the future. Costain is leading a key data integration programme that will bring the data and insights together into a single platform, amalgamating thousands of data sources to drive performance across government.
Costain's £150 million redevelopment of Gatwick Train Station is already implementing new techniques that should help cut carbon emissions and set new delivery standards, but the firm says by identifying and tackling systemic issues that obstruct the innovations in project delivery, this first-of-its-kind programme will be a catalyst for cultural change.