Many badly worn highways assets require more urgent attention, warn expert contributors to State of the Nation 2025.
Serious concerns are emerging about the condition of critical infrastructure – particularly ageing highways assets – both in the UK and around the world.
That is the core theme of the ICE's State of the Nation 2025 report.
Informed by technical experts from across the UK, the report takes a sector-by-sector look at the main issues facing the industry and the engineering solutions to them.
The report reveals growing disquiet about the resilience of many assets, with bridges causing the most worry.
As the experts told the ICE, parts of the network are "perhaps not as safe as the public thinks, while some structures should have usage restrictions but don't".
If such facts were more widely known, they added, the government would have to act.
Read the State of the Nation report
The institution's response
Dealing with the nation's creaking transport infrastructure is therefore crucial – and the ICE is tackling this task head-on.
Specifically, it will:
- Build on a 2024 pilot of a bridge near-miss reporting campaign using the Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures UK (CROSS-UK) platform
- Debate early findings from the campaign at this year's ICE Inspiring Engineering Excellence conference, taking place in July
- Issue a call for papers this spring for the first Transport Resilience conference – a technical ICE event that will address key global concerns in 2026
The role of digital
The report recognises that advanced digital tools may enable assets to be maintained and renewed in more productive, cost-effective and sustainable ways.
The ICE supports the efforts of highways authorities across Europe to shape the concept of a so-called digital road manager into a defined role. This is likely to be based partly on National Highways' Digital Roads initiative.
The Forth Road Bridge is a key case study in the report. This well-worn structure is being nursed into its seventh decade using digital tools such as structural health monitoring.
"The government has committed to providing a new national infrastructure strategy this spring," notes Professor Jim Hall, ICE President 2024-25, in his foreword. "So now is the time to establish a clear vision of how infrastructure can contribute to a better future for all of us.
"Some real prioritisation is called for, not only of investments, but also of innovations that need to be exploited and emergent technical solutions that must be better deployed."
Serious problems, radical solutions
State of the Nation 2025 also addresses how some of the UK's most water-stressed regions could boost supply.
A potential answer to this problem is re-use: treating and processing wastewater so that it becomes drinkable and gets added to the supply network.
The report analyses Southern Water's radical re-use proposals in Hampshire.
It includes examples from around the world where wastewater recycling has overcome the so-called yuck factor and is already widely accepted by consumers.
State of the Nation focuses on the resource challenge in the energy sector too.
It takes a renewed look at tidal energy's potential as a more predictable source of renewable electricity than wind and solar.
The report highlights a proposed barrage-based tidal power station on the Mersey estuary, again citing schemes that have been successful overseas.
As Hall observes: "This is not a report full of wild, uncosted, undeliverable ideas. It is the reasoned opinion of practitioners and researchers at the cutting edge of infrastructure."
About State of the Nation
Published annually, State of the Nation has been the institution's flagship report since 2002.
Based on extensive research and expert input from ICE members, it aims to stimulate debate and highlight actions that could help improve UK infrastructure.
State of the Nation shows how the profession can support the UN Sustainable Development Goals by providing efficient and effective transport, water and low-carbon energy solutions.
The recommendations in this report will form the bedrock of the ICE's annual knowledge programme.
The institution will explore these issues further through its Prestige Debates, its knowledge podcasts and the ICE Knowledge Hub.
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