London Bridge, so far as we know, is not falling down. Whether we would be able to tell if it was about to, however, is a different question. And, if it was, we would need to calculate how much time it had left, so that we could establish when to deny people and traffic access for their own safety. Such matters have been preoccupying researchers like Professors Robert Mair and Kenichi Soga for most of their careers – and with good reason.
Next to many icons of British infrastructure, London Bridge (39 years old in its present incarnation) is a mere spring chicken. Every day, millions of us use bridges, tunnels and pipelines constructed in the Victorian age. Our cities and towns are densely populated networks of infrastructure, much of it a century old or more. They are shaped by the clash of political and public expectations, but they are also home to some of the most important listed buildings, structures and heritage sites in the world. Given the scale of the job involved in ensuring that Britain’s infrastructure remains standing, it seems both astonishing and oddly reassuring that most of it does.
Image: Tunnel Credit: Kenichi Soga
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge