What does infrastructure imply for drivers?

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

We even got an Infrastructure Act, offered 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 considerably more intimate, affecting the daily life of quite considerably everyone in the nation – and hence deserving of our closest interest?

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 works 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 contemplate its type.

Once more, blimey. But surely Hayes has a point. Our road ne2rk is ugly. It’s a mass of drab, functional, soul-sapping concrete that doesn’t so significantly operate at 1 with nature as split it in 2.

Route of all evil

Numerous roads aren’t even fit for objective. Instead of assisting the public make the most of local services and amenities, they often cut us off from towns and cities, steering us into distant retail parks.

Hayes wants something various. 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 producing progress, and that some of our newer roads are a triumph of kind more than function.

Hindhead revisited

Feel of the tunnel constructed to bypass the village of Hindhead in Surrey. It not only protected the surrounding countryside, but also made it better by reuniting 2 commons that have been previously split.

The reunion produced the biggest region of lowland heath in southern Britain. Developers also planted 200,000 trees and shrubs to give a haven for wildlife.

Price issues

Ok, so roads don’t have to be undesirable. But will beautiful roads be a lot more expensive? Not according to Hayes, who argues that excellent design and style need be no far more costly than negative design and style.

It’s partly down to advances in green technologies and construction methods, such as smarter lighting, developing green bridges, much more tunneling and better noise barriers.

Whether Hayes’ vision will ever turn out to be reality relies in the quick term on the Conservatives regaining energy at the forthcoming election and, in the longer term, on market, nearby government and the populace at massive acquiring into his argument.

Digging deep

The issue is, I’ve never observed a gorgeous pothole. Some really impressive ones, and some that have stirred robust feelings. But none has struck me with its aesthetic qualities very 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 finish of the decade, I’d use it to repair the shocking state of the highways.

Soon after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I’m a lot more than satisfied to gaze upon a flawless stretch of smooth tarmac.

What does infrastructure imply for drivers?