Arthur D. Little (ADL)’s Blue Shift Institute today published Built to Last - Rethinking the Aging of Critical Infrastructure, an extensive new report that examines how to future-proof the essential infrastructure that underpins today’s societies.

Recent disruption caused by equipment failures such as electricity blackouts in Spain and Portugal and the shutdown of Heathrow Airport in the UK all demonstrate the pressing need to improve approaches for infrastructure management. Yet challenges around funding, technology and data all create major barriers that must be overcome.

Drawing on insights from over 20 industry leaders across energy, transportation, water, telecoms, and materials, the report examines how aging unfolds in complex, layered systems. It highlights the increasing pressures on infrastructure designed for 20^th century needs that are now facing the challenge of 21^st century usage. For example, nearly 70% of the US power grid is over 25 years old, according to the American Society for Civil Engineers.

The report outlines solutions for increasing resilience such as predictive tools, hybrid digital twins, and material and design innovations, along with the need for more collaborative ecosystems and partnerships to better manage risk at scale.

It demonstrates the requirement for new approaches that stop treating infrastructure as simple, isolated assets that degrade in a linear manner. Instead, they must be viewed as complex, layered, adaptive systems that are designed to evolve, adapt, and improve over time. It identifies 10 priorities for infrastructure leaders to address today’s realities and prepare for tomorrow’s uncertainties, including embedding aging scenarios in portfolio strategies and establishing interoperable data platfoms to integrate information from sensors, operations and external inputs.

Dr. Albert Meige, Global Director of Blue Shift at Arthur D. Little, comments: “Just as for humans, aging is unavoidable for the critical infrastructure that supports our lives. As our report demonstrates, simply continuing existing approaches to managing infrastucture is no longer sufficient. Innovation in aging is not just about resisting decay, but about designing systems to work with it, harnessing solutions from predictive maintenance to regenerative materials. Without this, we will face further major disruptions as infrastructure failure impact today’s complex, interconnected systems.”

The full report can be downloaded here: Built to last | Arthur D. Little

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Innovation in aging is not just about resisting decay, but about designing systems to work with it, harnessing solutions from predictive maintenance to regenerative materials.