What does infrastructure mean for drivers?

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

We even got an Infrastructure Act, given 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 massive engineering stuff politicians speak about so they can say they’re spending billions of pounds for our advantage? Your HS railways and your Crossrails?

Or is it significantly more intimate, affecting the each day life of pretty much everyone in the nation – and hence deserving of our closest attention?

Civilized responses

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

That’s correct. 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 consider its form.

Once more, 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 a lot operate at one particular with nature as split it in 2.

Route of all evil

A lot of roads aren’t even fit for purpose. Alternatively of assisting the public make the most of regional services and amenities, they often reduce us off from towns and cities, steering us into distant retail parks.

Hayes wants something diverse. He believes roads can lift the soul, so he envisages a road ne2rk that fits into the landscape and carries cleaner, greener autos.

There are indicators that we are making progress, and that some of our newer roads are a triumph of kind over function.

Hindhead revisited

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

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

Price concerns

Ok, so roads do not have to be bad. But will stunning roads be far more high-priced? Not according to Hayes, who argues that excellent design want be no much more costly than bad design.

It is partly down to advances in green technologies and construction strategies, such as smarter lighting, creating green bridges, a lot more tunneling and greater noise barriers.

No matter whether Hayes’ vision will ever turn out to be reality relies in the short term on the Conservatives regaining energy at the forthcoming election and, in the longer term, on industry, regional government and the populace at big acquiring into his argument.

Digging deep

The factor is, I’ve never ever observed a lovely pothole. Some very impressive ones, and some that have stirred sturdy emotions. But none has struck me with its aesthetic qualities quite as hard as it has struck my suspension.

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

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

What does infrastructure mean for drivers?