This article was first published in Rail Business Daily in November 2024, available here.
Adam Bennett, Interim Rail Sector Director, has written about a recent Costain study which found that the widespread adoption of CAP in the construction and infrastructure industry would have enormous economic and productivity benefits for the UK.
The news cycle is no stranger to crystal ball gazing. Every day there are new stories and articles about futuristic technology predicted to revolutionise the way we live, whether that’s flying taxis, holidaying in space, or other science fiction concepts.
In the world of complex infrastructure, it’s a bit different. Technology, particularly when it comes to construction machinery and equipment, has and will continue to be essential for the delivery of critical national infrastructure. Today, there are plenty of examples of CAP - construction equipment that uses the latest digital technology to optimise processes - being used across the world that could not be imagined just a few years ago.
The entire construction sector is increasingly seeing heavy plant and equipment using cutting edge connected and autonomous technologies to improve output, lower cost and make projects safer. Approximately one-fifth of construction plant currently in use has some degree of connectivity and autonomy, in addition to technology such as 3D printing and AI robotics.
In Norway, fully digitising all processes has seen intelligent machine control become standard across construction projects. In the UK, telematics technology is growing, used by both hire companies and owner-operators, and gives a view of the performance of plant fleet in terms of utilisation, idling time and performance.
Another popular example of CAP is the adoption of geotagging and geofencing, increasingly used to derive safety benefits by keeping people and plant separate from one another and avoiding hazardous areas of operation. In addition to the safety benefits, there are potential efficiencies to be gained through real-time asset tracking of equipment, vehicles and materials for resource allocation and live route planning and fuel savings. Organisations using geolocation technology in their plant have seen a 30 per cent decrease in fuel costs and a 15 per cent improvement in overall fleet productivity.
And in rail the adoption of these technologies is also spreading. Delivering automation in rail is often possible due to vehicles using the track infrastructure and the associated operational systems such as signalling. This is particularly the case for light rail operations and metro services, which typically have smaller networks and a single operator controlling the infrastructure and vehicles, including the Docklands Light Railway in London. Ballast tamping, removal and replacement of sleepers and automated inspection are among the tasks where automation is now commonplace, whilst the construction of rail tunnels is now highly automated, with tunnel boring machines ubiquitous across the world. It is expected that the installation and fit-out of tunnel services, which at present is predominantly a manual process, will soon become fully automated.
Indeed, this is something that Costain is investing in. As part of a consortium of mechanical engineering, civil engineering and robotic automation industry leaders, we’ve conducted successful trials of ATRIS, an integrated robotic and AI solution that can autonomously select brackets, locate where they need to be mounted along a tunnel wall, and install them. It has the potential to revolutionise the installation of mechanical and civil services in tunnels. Once fully developed, the final system can be deployed in tunnel construction and is expected to increase productivity by 40 per cent, due to faster installation, reduce installation costs by 30 per cent, and cut construction plant movements by 40 per cent, thereby lowering carbon emissions. ATRIS has also enabled the consortium to create a real-time digital assurance system, called DATA-IS – that is designed to reduce the cost and time of re-works, which can be as high as 38 per cent of total project costs.
So, with some confidence, we can say that we will continue to see the adoption of connected and autonomous plant and equipment, not only in rail but across the wider infrastructure ecosystem. But what does this mean, and is this a good thing?
Economic
Well, one thing that we can be certain of is the potential economic benefits of CAP are enormous.
In a recent study produced for the Department for Transport, we found that increasing the production and sale of CAP equipment to meet global demand could add £61 billion to the UK economy by 2050, through a combination of direct, indirect and induced effects across the supply chain. This includes equipment makers ordering more parts and services from their own suppliers, and they from theirs, and so on, fuelling a virtuous circle for the economy with higher wages for employees and profits going back into the economy.
At the same time, greater industry-wide adoption of CAP would significantly increase the sector’s productivity output. Together, the road and rail sectors are forecast to see £33 billion of increased output in total by 2050, which translates into additional Gross Value Added (GVA) of £14 billion for those sectors. When scaled across the construction sectors most likely to adopt CAP, albeit with increasing degrees of uncertainty as a result, this is estimated to be worth £73 billion in additional GVA through savings and increased productivity, and when scaled across the entire construction industry, this is estimated to be worth around £356 billion in additional GVA by 2050. When these factors are combined, the UK’s wider adoption of CAP could lead to additional GVA of £417 billion (as a cumulative total) by 2050.
Environment
But it’s not all about the economy. There are a number of additional benefits that the increased adoption of CAP through to 2050 would enable, including higher productivity, savings on fuel and energy costs, and safety improvements.
It won’t be a surprise to anyone working in rail infrastructure to know that the use of plant is a major source of construction emissions. It has been estimated that emissions from construction plant can represent five per cent of a road construction project’s total carbon emissions. Whilst decarbonisation targets will inevitably move fuel use towards electricity and potentially hydrogen, increasing efficiency through greater adoption of CAP will reduce energy use, no matter what the fuel. This will have positive impacts not only on the construction sector, but the wider economy and environment.
As such, it is estimated that wider adoption of connected and autonomous plant would see the UK’s road and rail sectors reduce carbon emissions by approximately 19,300kt of CO2e by 20250, equivalent to the annual CO2e absorbed by an area of forest the size of Wales. At the same time, the greater use of autonomous plant would also reduce the cost of energy and fuel by £10 billion through to 2050.
Safety and workforce
In the rail and road sectors, it is estimated that CAP adoption could reduce the number of safety incidents by 28,000 through to 2050, with the technology potentially removing operators from high-risk environments, in addition to driving improvements to workplace wellbeing. The introduction of any new technology can often cause shifts in the labour market, creating both challenges and opportunities. With the increasing adoption of CAP, the workforce will not only earn more, but it will also enjoy improved working conditions. This is also reflected in the predicted lower costs to employers of loss of workdays, compensation, and so on.
This results in cost savings of £6.3 billion to employers in the rail and road sector. Of course, the quality-of-life gain for workers is subjective and difficult to measure but it should be recognised as an important benefit of CAP adoption. All types of infrastructure investment are recognised as a pathway to national growth and prosperity. However, with so many competing pressures on public spending, investment in sectors like rail must showcase value for money and maximise productivity. As we’ve seen, CAP has the potential to transform the productivity of construction activities in the rail sector and play an important role in fostering greener, safer ways of working, as well as creating more high skilled jobs.
Greater adoption of CAP in the UK will be encouraged by the commitment to long-term major infrastructure projects, which will help organisations plan their procurement in a manner that prioritises productivity and unlocks investment in exciting and new technologies. Therefore, in order to scale up and achieve the benefits of CAP faster, there needs to be a mindset shift to embrace the technology and drive permanent, positive change.