FREE TO READ | Infrastructure magazine focuses on challenges and opportunities

Amid the crumbling infrastructure problems SA faces, there is also hope for new projects with the implementation of renewable energy

Significant infrastructure development is one of the SA economy's most pressing needs.
Significant infrastructure development is one of the SA economy's most pressing needs.
Image: Sunday TImes/123RF/Anton Samsonov

South Africa’s public infrastructure has been buckling in the past few years, as road, rail and water networks begin to crumble due to lack of maintenance or adequate oversight. On the flip side of the coin, the drive towards sustainability and the increasing implementation of renewable energy mean that there are plenty of exciting infrastructure projects in the offing as well.

In this issue, we consider both the challenge facing public services and facilities, and the opportunities arising from the new, green focus on infrastructure. This includes pondering exactly what would be required to unlock the local renewable energy sector, as well as how architects are implementing sustainable and green designs into new buildings. We also consider how infrastructure development can be made more resource-efficient and less environmentally damaging.

Education remains a priority in SA, which makes it vital that infrastructure development in the education space happens. We look at the role the private sector can play here.

In addition, we focus on how to ensure effective fire safety by implementing the necessary processes early in the infrastructure life cycle, why infrastructure investments are fast becoming an essential component of many institutional investor portfolios, and how cities’ needs for well located, multi-family, mixed-income units, integrated with commercial and work opportunities, cannot be met without the expertise of architects.

 

Browse through the full magazine below (zoom in or go full screen for ease of reading):