Monday's interview with Robert Mair on the BBC's Life Scientific was fascinating for those that are interested in big infrastructure projects:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/tlsRobert Mair is an expert in tunnelling and gives useful background on the problems encountered when tunnelling under cities (most of which are built on soft materials) and the recent advances in dealing with these.
At the end of the interview they go on to talk about the development of 'smart infrastructure', that is infrastructure that feeds back information on it's condition so that those responsible can decide when maintenance interventions are required and how much more life there is left in the facility or structure. These are important developments from a public finance perspective and there may be opportunities for some developing countries to 'leapfrog' technologies (as with mobile phones in Africa and elsewhere).
Headed up Robert Mair, Cambridge University is taking a lead in research into smart infrastructure. Here's the website of the research centre:
http://www-smartinfrastructure.eng.cam.ac.uk/
