The Continuing Value of Civil Engineering Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

From the Great Wall of China and the monumental aqueducts of the Roman Empire, to the still heavily-used nineteenth century railway networks that cross Europe and the Americas, and the water and sewer systems that continue to supply and drain cities across the world, Civil Engineering has provided the infrastructure upon which human civilization is built and sustained. Many projects have endured in use far beyond what a modern designer would envisage: the Aqua Virgo aqueduct in Rome still carries water over 2000 years after its first commissioning; trains still run on the alignment of the 1830 Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The social, environmental and economic value extracted from these and other projects goes far beyond anything that the original promoters could have foreseen, whilst the physical infrastructure is loaded in ways vastly different from those the designers could have considered. Projects have also stood through decades or centuries of social, political and environmental change, sometimes finding new uses in addition to or instead of their original ones. Yet, in the contemporary world, infrastructure development is often controversial, with projects ranging from the Mekong Delta hydropower expansion to the UK’s HS2 high-speed rail line being associated with ill-informed debate, and proving slow and costly in the planning stage, often due to extended discussion on projected cost-benefits.

How can we examine the continuing value of great Civil Engineering achievements from the earliest times to the more recent past? How can we use our conclusions to inform the debate on modern Civil Engineering infrastructure development, and to help create heritage for the future? What can we learn in terms of design, operation, and maintenance of past Civil Engineering infrastructure in relation to its durability and sustainability in a changing world?

In order to help address these over-arching questions, we invite contributions addressing any aspect of the continuing value of Civil Engineering heritage: defining and quantifying what it means, how it comes to be regarded as heritage, and in particular which lessons it can teach us for the benefit of our descendants, both future Civil Engineers and citizens who will use the Civil Engineering infrastructure of the future.

Themes

1. The changing understanding of the cultural and historical value of Civil Engineering heritage from ancient to recent times
2. Exploring how utilitarian infrastructure becomes Civil Engineering heritage
3. Quantitative and qualitative valuation of Civil Engineering infrastructure used well beyond its expected design life
4. Lessons to be learned from enduring Civil Engineering heritage: sustainable procurement, long design life, good maintenance, resilience to changes in climate, demand and many other things
5. Effective cost-benefit models for hugely long-lived Civil Engineering infrastructure: using lessons from the past to better inform future planning and design
6. Designing for the future: using the history of changes of use to design more flexible Civil Engineering infrastructure for potential future needs
7. Selling the Civil Engineering heritage of the future: how can heritage values help us understand and communicate the benefits of new infrastructure development?
8. Successful conservation and interpretation of disused or changed-use Civil Engineering projects
9. Using modern techniques to better understand past Civil Engineering projects
10. Keeping up to date with the old way of doing things: Civil Engineering skills and knowledge for maintaining heritage systems still in use
11. Use of vernacular and traditional construction in modern Civil Engineering
12. Ancient Civil Engineering projects as a resource for studying past physical, political and social environments.

Prof. Dr. Martin Crapper
Dr. Davide Motta
Guest Editors

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