What does infrastructure imply for drivers?

A single of the defining qualities of the final Parliament was the increased use – by all primary parties – of the term infrastructure.

We even got an Infrastructure Act, provided its Royal Assent in February 2015, and there is a discrete infrastructure unit within HM Treasury. Blimey.

But what is infrastructure? Is it just the large engineering stuff politicians speak about so they can say they’re spending billions of pounds for our benefit? Your HS railways and your Crossrails?

Or is it significantly a lot more intimate, affecting the every day life of fairly significantly everyone in the country – and as a result deserving of our closest attention?

Civilized responses

Take the idea mooted by John Hayes, the last administration’s transport minister, that UK roads should cease to be regarded as mere building projects and more as operates of art.

That’s appropriate. Hayes wants our roads to resonate with our unconscious understanding of beauty. He even invoked the ancient Greeks and Romans, civilizations that looked beyond the utility of the infrastructure to think about its form.

Again, blimey. But surely Hayes has a point. Our road ne2rk is ugly. It is a mass of drab, functional, soul-sapping concrete that doesn’t so considerably work at a single with nature as split it in 2.

Route of all evil

Many roads are not even match for purpose. Alternatively of assisting the public make the most of local solutions and amenities, they usually cut us off from towns and cities, steering us into distant retail parks.

Hayes desires anything different. He believes roads can lift the soul, so he envisages a road ne2rk that fits into the landscape and carries cleaner, greener vehicles.

There are signs that we are creating progress, and that some of our newer roads are a triumph of form more than function.

Hindhead revisited

Believe of the tunnel constructed to bypass the village of Hindhead in Surrey. It not only protected the surrounding countryside, but also produced it much better by reuniting 2 commons that were previously split.

The reunion designed the largest area of lowland heath in southern Britain. Developers also planted 200,000 trees and shrubs to offer a haven for wildlife.

Expense concerns

Ok, so roads do not have to be bad. But will gorgeous roads be more costly? Not according to Hayes, who argues that great design need be no more costly than poor style.

It is partly down to advances in green technologies and construction techniques, such as smarter lighting, building green bridges, much more tunneling and better noise barriers.

Regardless of whether Hayes’ vision will ever become reality relies in the short term on the Conservatives regaining energy at the forthcoming election and, in the longer term, on business, local government and the populace at large buying into his argument.

Digging deep

The thing is, I’ve never seen a stunning pothole. Some really impressive ones, and some that have stirred strong feelings. But none has struck me with its aesthetic qualities really as hard as it has struck my suspension.

So if I have been spending the £15 billion the final government earmarked for investment in roads by the end of the decade, I’d use it to repair the shocking state of the highways.

Following all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m far more than content to gaze upon a flawless stretch of smooth tarmac.

What does infrastructure imply for drivers?