In the latest episode of CIHT’s podcast “Transport Talks” we were joined by Phil Blythe, CBE, Director of the new National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable and Resilient Transport Infrastructure (DARe Hub), Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University and former Chief Scientific Advisor for the Department of Transport, to talk about resilience in the transport sector.

Resilience can be intended in many ways, from resilience to climate change, to economic resilience and personal resilience.

Recent extreme weather events have posed new challenges to the transport sector and the topic of resilience has started to become of interest among policy makers and practitioners. Moreover, after the Covid19 Pandemic we have all learnt how important it is to be ready for unexpected events.  

In this podcast we discussed why climate change resilience has not received much attention so far, when compared to efforts to reduce carbon emissions and why it is crucial for the future. 

We also talked about what skills people in the transport industry will need to cope with future challenges and how Professor Blythe's experience during the pandemic helped him understand the importance of being prepared.
It was a fascinating chat, and we got some great insights from Professor Blythe about why resilience matters now more than ever in transportation. 

CIHT’s podcast series is now available on (and on other podcast platforms - just search your favorite podcast provider and we should be there):

Key takeaways from the podcast 

• Climate change is posing some new and important challenges to the way we plan, deliver and maintain our road infrastructure. The disruptive impacts of climate change, whether in the form of flooding, snow, wind or extreme heat are becoming more prevalent and the sector needs to better understand what this will mean for our future.  
• There is also a need to better understand the current condition of our road infrastructure and identify which sections might not cope with the changes needed to face climate change.
• Ensuring our infrastructure is resilient to climate change will require some investment in the short terms with the potential of delivering greater benefits and returns in the longer period.  
• There is a lot of uncertainty and horizon scanning that needs to be done to better understand the full impact of climate change and build the correct knowledge and skills in the profession that will make our workforce ready to face those challenges. 

Quotes from the podcast 

Everything with that has a cost, has a benefit... probably has a disbenefit in terms of having to take that infrastructure out of use for a while, while those changes are made…but its is about to bring a menu of options together in a in a coherent way so that we actually understand the scale of the problem…

I think one of the...lessons from the pandemic is that made politicians and the public themselves realize how important transport was because ... transport, in a way, has always been an afterthought, is just there and when it's not there [because it was not safe to travel]…people understood the impacts

… one of the challenges I saw with resilience...is that it is almost an afterthought within government and…local authorities and others that fund transport infrastructure have to look at all the pros and cons of building infrastructure from a resilience point of view…so I am hoping that the work we are doing with yourselves at CIHT… will be the exemplar in almost the road map for looking at it for other transport modes as well.

CIHT and DARe Hub working resilience to extreme weather event sin the highways sector 

CIHT is working together with the new National Hub for Decarbonised, Adaptable, and Resilient Transport Infrastructures (DARe) on a new project to explore how the highways sector can improve the UK road network in terms of resilience and adaptability to extreme weathers.

Read more about this project here.

Further resources 

CIHT Resilience Masterclass key takeaway 

How to build resilience into our streets – award winning design guides

Help and support 

For any press enquires please contact communications@ciht.org.uk 
For any technical enquiries please contact technical@ciht.org.uk 

Professor Phil Blythe, CBE, Director of the DARe Hub