Last edited 09 Mar 2018

Transport infrastructure efficiency strategy

On 6 December 2017 the Department for Transport, High Speed Two (HS2) Limited, and Highways England published a Transport infrastructure efficiency strategy (TIES), describing seven challenges that the Department for Transport and its delivery bodies will address to improve transport infrastructure efficiency.

This followed a series of other significant announcements for the construction industry:

22 November 2017, Autumn Budget 2017.
27 November 2017, Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future.
29 November 2017, details of the Construction Sector Deal.
6 December 2017, Transforming Infrastructure Performance.

The challenges which will be addressed to improve transport infrastructure efficiency and provide better outcomes for transport users, as set out in the strategy are:

Judge strategic choice and trade-offs - based on whole life costs and wider benefits.
Improve the way we set up our projects - to maximise value and prevent inefficiency throughout delivery.
Create a transport infrastructure performance benchmarking forum - to share best practice and innovation.
Establish a common approach - to estimating to improve cost confidence and assurance.
Promote long-term, collaborative relationships - with industry to reduce transaction costs in procurement and maximise innovation.
Challenge standards - to enable innovation and drive efficiencies.
Exploit digital technologies and standardise our assets - to enable the adoption of best practice from the manufacturing sector, such as off-site construction.

The strategy suggests that addressing these challenges will better enable Crossrail, Highways England, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail, TfL and the DfT to meet efficiency targets and increase the certainty offered to the supply chain about how transport bodies want their infrastructure to be delivered. Those organisations are also pledging to support the vision of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) to transform productivity within the construction sector

Andrew Wolstenholme, (then CEO of Crossrail and co-chair of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC)) will Chair a Transport Infrastructure Efficiency Taskforce (TIET), to support each of the bodies involved with implementing their own responses to the strategy. The TIET will provide the framework, oversight, challenge and coordination for the workstreams identified in the strategy and will also provide a One Year On report on progress.

Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport said; “If we are to succeed, we must pursue efficiency - making sure that transport users get the best possible return on every pound we spend on our transport networks."

Andrew Wolstenholme said; “When we first started working on the Strategy we set ourselves the modest ambition of sharing lessons learnt and case studies from how we invest in transport infrastructure. Having done that, we have now set ourselves seven key challenges. Responding to these challenges will also support the Construction Leadership Council and wider construction sector to deliver better productivity by aligning incentives and ambitions between clients and the supply chain.”