The Infrastructure Podcast

In this episode of The Infrastructure Podcast, we discuss mega projects, specifically their potential impact, positive and negative, on the communities they serve and the environment they leave behind. 
While historically the success of a mega project was measured in terms of its delivery to budget or completion to schedule, today these metrics have shifted wider and deeper as populations grow and the pressure of climate change bites. Today's measures of success and our focus on the human return on investment, the benefits created to living standards, including carbon reduction, economic growth and environmental improvement. In short, we're no longer just building assets, we're building the social and environmental scaffolding for the 21st century. 
To discuss this change and its impact on the infrastructure sector, my guest today is Victoria Johnson, Vice President and global infrastructure executive at infrastructure consultant HDR Engineering, Inc., who has spent the last two decades redefining the architecture of our cities.
The episode was recorded during my recent trip to New York, where she chaired a panel at the Transforming Infrastructure Perform Summit organized by the Infrastructure Policy Advancement team at software giant Bentley Systems. Her panel focused on mega programs for community and climate with fellow experts including Stephanie Wiggins, Chief Executive Officer of Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, the transit agency preparing for the LA 2028 Olympics, and recently wrapping up the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Victoria’s work with a wide array of municipal, state and federal leaders globally makes her an ideal expert to tackle this subject today, as does her glittering career, which over the last few decades has spanned advising the Biden-Harris administration on the historic $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to her leadership in the US Conference of Mayors and the African American Mayors Association.
 Victoria certainly bridges the gap between high level public policy and street level impact with recent mega project work, including transformation of JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports in New York, and innovative insights on planning of Olympic legacies at Milano Cortina 2026 and LA 2028 Olympic games, which shares more deeply in an upcoming white paper she is co-authoring in collaboration Bentely Systems and Bocconi University in Italy.  
Resources 
Championing Equitable Infrastructure with Victoria Johnson | Data-Smart City Solutions
Investing in people to power our infrastructure | The Hill
Mayors Business Council - United States Conference of Mayors
Governor Hochul Announces JFK Airport Construction Sets Record MWBE Participation With $2.3 Billion in Contracts Awarded | Governor Kathy Hochul (ny.gov)
Milestone Convening of ‘Equity in Infrastructure Project’ | The Equity in Infrastructure Project
Transforming Infrastructure Performance Summit New York 2026
Victoria Johnson | LinkedIn

In this episode we take a close look at Thames Water’s proposed White Horse Reservoir in Oxfordshire – one of nine new storage schemes advancing under Ofwat’s PR24 plans to confront growing climate pressures, population growth, and the urgent need for long-term water security.
The investment is much needed. No new reservoirs have been built in the UK for more than 30 years leaving an potential shortfall of up to 5 billion litres a day in England by 2055,  according to Ofwat’s recent reporting. 
As if to highlight the challenge right now, Thames Water has this week announced a new hose pipe ban across the region. Clearly work needs to happen to reduce leakage but without new storage capacity we are heading for problems. 
My guest today is Nevil Muncaster, Strategic Water Resources Director at Thames Water and the man masterminding plans to tackle this challenge, including the £7.5 billion mega-project to build a 12 square kilometre reservoir near Abingdon. This facility is designed to hold 150 billion litres of water, drawn from the nearby River Thames during winter, and released to bolster supplies and secure drought resilience of up to 15 million people across London and the South East for the next century. 
Supporters call it a critical, non-negotiable insurance policy against a changing climate and a rapidly growing population.
However, the path to a 2040 opening is far from smooth. Local communities, environmental charities, and councils have raised fierce objections over its massive ecological footprint, carbon cost, and the disruption of local livelihoods. 
Add to that the multi-billion-pound pressure that the investment will add to Thames Water’s already precarious financial position, which see the company currently saddled with nearly £20 billion of debt and racing against a looming autumn cash-flow crisis.
So much to talk through as we explore progress toward Development Consent Order application for the project this year. 
Resources
Thames Water White Horse Reservoir 
Thames Water website
Ofwat Major Water Infrastructure Programme 
Ofwat RAPID
Government announcement on PR24
Independent Commission on Water - Sir Jon Cunliffe

In this episode we examine delivery progress on the multi-billion-pound strategy and pipeline underpinning the UK’s ambition to place infrastructure at the heart of economic, social and environmental growth across the nation. 
Last week, NISTA, the government’s National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority published its latest Major Projects Annual Report. This document offers a transparent look at the on-going £924 billion government project portfolio, tracking 189 of the UK’s most complex and ambitious initiatives, from nuclear power stations through to digital transformations.
Joining me to dissect these numbers and explain the bold delivery strategy is NISTA’s chief executive, Becky Wood, who has been at the helm of this organisation since June last year, shortly after it was formed, bringing together the National Infrastructure Commission and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. Its role is help drive strategy and improve performance across this huge investment portfolio. 
Certainly this report highlights delivery progress but it also draws a line in the sand ahead of NISTA’s radical overhaul known as "Project Reset," which in April slashed its central oversight down to just 80 core, nationally significant projects and set out to demand sharper accountability and faster delivery.
So, the question is how will this renewed focus help turn around the sector’s lengthening major infrastructure delivery timelines; and how can NISTA use data and digital systems to salvage failing projects and maximise value from every pound of the taxpayer’s cash.
Resources
NISTA website
NISTA annual report 2025/26
Project Reset
10 Year Infrastructure Strategy
Infrastructure Pipeline

In this episode my guest is Milda Manomaityte, who stepped into the role of Chief Executive at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and its subsidiary, the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) in March 2026.
According to publicity at the time, her appointment signalled “a gear change for ACE group” and a strategic pivot for its role leading the sector. 
Clearly that caught my eye – what indeed has Milda got up her sleeve to drag the engineering sector up the political agenda and into the 21st Century?
Well, given that the UK is about to be handed a new Prime Minister in the form of Andy Burnham, it seems a great moment to find out how an organisation like the ACE - which for over a century has been the voice of engineering consultancy - can ensure that this new administration makes the right decisions when it comes to the long-term planning and delivery of the UK’s critical infrastructure and for protecting and enhancing the natural environment around us.
Milda arrives uniquely equipped to meet these challenges. She spent the last seven years at the Railway Industry Association (RIA) - and we last on the podcast two years ago about driving innovation, performance, and digital transformation into that sector -  so she brings a track record of accelerating technology adoption and navigating complex government-industry relationships across rail.
And at ACE, her predecessor, Kate Jennings, successfully elevated the trade body's political profile and established an ambitious three-year business plan. Milda’s tenure begins at a watershed moment. The UK infrastructure landscape is being rapidly reshaped by the rollout of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) overseeing the 10 year infrastructure strategy, and the delivery of an ambitious £720bn pipeline of work across energy, water, transport and of course housing. 
But the challenges are abundant – project delays due to funding constraints and planning problems, huge challenges meeting our decarbonisation goals, ongoing lack of skills and of course the looming threat of Artificial Intelligence threatening to soak up jobs across the entire engineering design sector. 
So lots to talk through
Resources
ACE website
EIC website
Milda on the Infrastructure Podcast June 2024
Railway Industry Association 
EIC Nature as Infrastructure campaign

In this episode  we are talking about electric vehicle charging and the challenge of creating the truly integrated and customer friendly charging network needed to support the growth of EVs
My guest  is Asif Ghafoor, chief executive of BE.EV, one of the UK’s leading charging networks and someone who I’d say is pretty out there when it comes to honest appraisals of the state of the EV market and the fragmented "wild west” charging networks that now litter out towns cities and service stations. 
I last spoke to Asif on the podcast three years ago in Episode 24 back in July 2023 -  seems like yesterday! But BE.EV is now five years ago, and arguable since we last spoke the sector finally starting to grow up- less of the “I’ll have a go” mentally; more strategic, customer and business focus.
Certainly BE.EV is expanding and leading the charge. In February this year Asif completed a landmark acquisition of European energy giant Mer’s UK public charging network, adding over 1,600 charging bays across 450+ sites and seeing the business effectively shift from its northern roots to become truly national networks with large numbers of charging sites added across the south and now boasting over 2,500 bays.
And still backed by Octopus Energy Generation’s Sky Fund, the company has established itself as the UK’s second top-rated rapid and ultra-rapid charging network, combining an impressive 99% reliability rate with a deeply customer-centric approach.
BE.EV also recently led a pioneering partnership with Leasing.com which integrated BE.EV directly into the consumer car-buying journey, demystifying public charging at the exact moment drivers choose their next vehicle.
BE.EV’s guiding philosophy remains fiercely simple: drivers shouldn’t have to become charging experts.
So let’s explore the reality behind these claims and headlines, find out what’s changed over the last five years and perhaps unpack how charging networks can actually still underpin the UK’s low carbon future. 
Resources
BE.EV website
SMMT statistics
Octopus Energy Generation
Episode 24 with Asif Ghafoor - "Building the EV revolution " - 2023
Times interview with Asif