🌍 CEFS Weekly Briefing | 16 June 2025

Keeping you informed, engaged, and excited about the future of the built environment.

Author

Luke Boustead
June 16, 2025

🎯 Big Plans, Slow Pipes

This week’s headlines are bursting with promise — £725bn infrastructure pledges, AI-driven green lights, and accelerated flood schemes. But behind the bold announcements, a familiar friction returns: ambition outpacing delivery. Whether it’s brownfield barriers, gridlock in clean energy rollout, or project risk miscommunication, engineering success still hinges on execution, not just intent.

🔧 Audit your latest project: where is ambition let down by outdated methods or slow coordination?

🚀 The engineers who thrive don’t just build plans — they break the bottlenecks.

🌪️ Climate Resilience & Risk

• New Proposals to Accelerate the Construction of Flood Schemes (Water Magazine): The UK government is targeting faster delivery of flood defence projects with streamlined funding and approvals. The move aims to cut delays and strengthen protection in climate-vulnerable areas.

• Engineers Take a Deep Dive into Inspecting Waterfront Infrastructure (ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine): Innovative inspection techniques are extending the life of waterfront assets by identifying subsurface vulnerabilities early. It’s a timely step as sea-level rise and coastal pressures mount.

🔌 Energy Systems Under Strain

• Government in Danger of Missing Clean Power Target, Warns Lords Committee (UK Parliament): A Lords Committee has flagged serious risk of the UK missing its 2030 clean power goals due to sluggish grid upgrades and delivery hurdles. Planning, permitting, and workforce shortages are central barriers.

• Urgent Need for Energy Infrastructure Improvements (ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine): The U.S. faces mounting energy demand and resilience risks, with calls for modernised infrastructure and cross-sector engineering collaboration to meet future capacity.

⚡ Planning, Policy & Power Moves

• Reeves to Lay Out 10-Year Infrastructure Plan Worth £725bn (City AM): Labour is preparing to launch a decade-long infrastructure strategy, backed by £725bn and a dedicated delivery authority. The plan promises policy continuity, but execution capacity remains under scrutiny.

• Spending Review 2025: Infrastructure at the Heart of UK Growth (Hogan Lovells): The Spending Review cements infrastructure as a core engine of economic renewal, with new allocations for transport, housing, and energy. Delivery acceleration is a stated goal — but faces familiar systemic drag.

• Canada Tables Bill to Fast-Track Major ‘National Interest’ Projects (ConstructConnect): Canada’s proposed legislation would speed up permitting for critical infrastructure, aiming to cut through regulatory bottlenecks and catalyse economic development.

🧠 AI & Automation in Practice

• Google’s Expanded AI Solution to Traffic Light Emissions (Sustainability Magazine): ‘Project Green Light’ uses AI to optimise traffic signal timings, cutting urban congestion and emissions. Results from pilot cities point to scalable environmental and efficiency gains.

• New Jersey Project Inspires AI Model for Wind Farming (ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine): Offshore wind planning is being reshaped by AI that balances turbine siting with ocean conservation. It’s a model of how civil engineering can pair energy growth with ecological intelligence.

🛠️ Materials & Methods Reimagined

• City of London Tower: Deep Excavation and Heritage Support (Ground Engineering): Advanced geotechnical techniques allowed a major tower project to proceed adjacent to sensitive heritage assets. The scheme demonstrates how integrated risk management can unlock constrained urban sites.

• Complex Microtunnelling Upgrades Collapsed Trunk Sewer in Hertfordshire (Ground Engineering): Engineers deployed precision microtunnelling to rehabilitate a failed sewer beneath dense urban fabric. The project balanced technical difficulty with community disruption risks.

📦 Digital Engineering & Data

• AI Can Help You with Routine Engineering Tasks — Here’s How (ICE): From automating data cleaning to accelerating design iterations, AI tools are quietly reshaping civil workflows. Engineers who master these tools early will gain a serious edge in delivery speed and insight.

🌍 Infrastructure for Net Zero

• Willow Review Unveils 14-Step Roadmap to Unlock Green Economy Opportunities for SMEs (NovAzure): A government-backed review lays out targeted actions to help SMEs scale their contribution to net zero — from funding access to skills and digital tools. It’s a strong nudge toward greener supply chains.

🏗️ Construction Trends & Delivery

• Measurement Miscommunication Lands Glass Supplier in Costly Liability (ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine): A unit mismatch in project specifications led to major costs and delays — a sharp reminder that precision and communication remain critical on high-pressure builds.

💡 Strategy, Leadership & Reform

• Tim Chapman on the UK Infrastructure Investment Outlook (Ground Engineering): Chapman outlines a vision for smarter investment and delivery, calling for integrated teams, clearer value chains, and a stronger engineering voice in shaping national priorities.

🔬 Research That Matters

• Assessment of Network Rail Earthworks: New Technical Insights (Ground Engineering): Fresh analysis offers more robust methods for evaluating earthwork stability under operational and climate stresses. The findings are set to inform future asset strategy across UK rail.

🗞️ Noteworthy Mentions

Headlines worth skimming this week:

• Internships provide invaluable experiences for civil engineering students and firms – https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/civil-engineering-magazine/issues/mayjune2025print