Summary
Maintenance is an unfashionable word. But as Chris Bowlby discovers, keeping our infrastructure in good condition is one of the most crucial and creative challenges we face. Key assets such as concrete bridges built in the early post-war decades are crumbling, and may be what one expert calls 'ticking time bombs'. And all kinds of systems, even in the digital world, still need maintaining well. But all the focus for politicians and many engineers is on brand new infrastructure, not sustaining the vital assets we already have. So how can we learn to value maintenance in a radical new way?
Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.0 | BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:41.0 | Thanks for listening to this BBC Analysis podcast. |
| 0:45.0 | I'm Chris Bulby and in this edition I've been taking a look at a very unfashionable |
| 0:49.2 | word, maintenance. |
| 0:51.2 | We don't tend to think about it until things go wrong, sometimes very wrong. |
| 0:55.0 | But as I've been discovering keeping, say, our infrastructure in good condition is one of the most important and creative challenges that we face. |
| 1:04.0 | I'm in a field by a busy road near Skipton in Yorkshire, |
| 1:10.0 | an ancient dry stone wall on one side |
| 1:13.2 | a modern concrete bridge on the other discussing which is easier to maintain in |
| 1:18.0 | good condition. |
| 1:19.0 | If you look at this bridge here there's only two or three |
| 1:22.2 | different components you can actually change out. |
| 1:24.0 | They're very small. |
| 1:25.0 | It will have to come down and be completely replaced. |
... |
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