Welcome to the May 2022 issue of Civil Engineering. We trust this finds you all safe and well in the ‘new normal’ as we hopefully come towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The global construction industry is showing a significant recovery post-Covid-19 as it adjusts to new ways of working. However, the Ukrainian conflict is already having worldwide repercussions on the resources needed for large-scale infrastructure recovery programmes. Together with climate change, it reminds all civil engineers of the importance of reducing material and energy usage in our projects through smarter working, digitalisation and innovation.
An example of continual improvement in digital modelling is presented in our first paper, by Peng et al. (2022). The building information modelling process and a digital build pre-assembly model significantly helped with the design and manufacture of the uniquely curved and twisted pylons of the New Shougang Bridge in Beijing, a 1354 m long double-pylon cable-stayed bridge carrying eight lanes of traffic. The paper also discusses the use of the model for designing temporary works falsework and planning construction.
Our second paper reports on a smarter approach to health, safety and well-being adopted on the £4.2 billion Thames Tideway programme in London, UK. Alder et al. (2022) discuss how a re-think in safety management created a strong safety culture from the outset, and how this was successfully adapted to the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, including a stop and re-start. A step-back principle was used if unsafe conditions occurred, and this also helped to ensure learning from near misses. With three joint ventures constructing different sections, collaboration and consistency continue to be vital to achieving the transformational approach.
Zhou et al. (2022) then report on the innovations and challenges of building China’s high-speed rail network, the world’s biggest at over 29 000 km. They report on the technological advances that have led to its new ballastless track design and automatic train operation system, and highlight where lessons learned from these advances can be taken into major high-speed schemes around the world. Other challenges the network’s design engineers have had to overcome include extreme weather conditions at ground level and massive caverns and debris flows underground. Current Chinese research on intelligent railways will also no doubt influence future high-speed rail delivery and operation.
In our final paper, Younger et al. (2022) report on a potentially smarter way of considering the impact of climate change on civil engineering projects. They say that the current climate-change analysis approach of splitting regions into grids does not consider geographical features that can have a significant effect on local weather. As such, they argue that the Köppen–Geiger regional zoning system would be a more practical basis for civil engineers to accurately assess the climate impact on projects. They provide a useful definition of net-zero in the section on reducing emissions of construction materials, and describe the limited success to date of carbon dioxide capture and storage schemes. Using captured carbon dioxide to make lighter carbon-fibre construction materials and permanent formwork is suggested as a way forward.
All the papers in this issue demonstrate the need for smarter and more innovate thinking to enable civil engineers to continue to adapt to the combined effects of climate change, post-Covid-19 recovery, resource shortages and accelerating urbanisation. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in producing this issue, in particular the authors for providing some fascinating case studies to share with us. They each provide examples of transformative ways of working.
