The ICE and the British Standards Institution expect to publish both PAS standards next year.
The ICE is developing two new publicly available specification (PAS) standards: one on climate adaptation pathways and the other on optimising productivity in infrastructure development and delivery.
In doing so, it’s working with the British Standards Institution (BSI) once more. The pair collaborated in 2023 to update the PAS 2080 carbon management standard and again in 2024 to revise the BSI Flex 350 code of practice on lower-carbon concrete mixes.
The new PASs are due to be published in 2026.
Why is the ICE creating more standards?
The institution exists to improve lives by ensuring that the planet and its people have all the engineering capacity and infrastructure systems they need to thrive.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the ICE must harness and share the expertise of its members and professional networks.
Crucially, it must also help organisations worldwide to apply this knowledge effectively. This is where formal standards provide invaluable best-practice guidance.
Such documents also serve as benchmarks that everyone can refer to, helping infrastructure professionals to measure progress across the sector.
What are the benefits of a PAS in particular?
Although they’re designed for the UK market, PASs are recognised worldwide as high-quality specifications. The existing civil engineering ones have formalised knowledge in areas of importance to professionals across the infrastructure sector.
Some of the most crucial aspects of civil engineering are complex, with many voices offering advice on best practice. They include productivity and climate adaptation – the subjects of the upcoming PASs.
Infrastructure professionals stand to benefit significantly from the clear specifications and practical guidance these will provide, according to Mark Hansford, the ICE’s director of engineering knowledge.
“The ICE is excited to be sponsoring the production of PASs in these two important areas,” he said. “There’s a real need to define both climate adaptation pathways and productivity in infrastructure, emphasising economic, social and environmental benefits while considering both new and existing assets.”
Why has the ICE chosen climate adaptation pathways as a PAS topic?
In essence, adaptation pathways are an approach to project planning that aims to render decision-making flexible enough to account for climate uncertainty.
This approach recognises that several actions may need to be implemented progressively in response to how the climate changes over time.
The ICE recognised the need for a PAS that specifies how to develop and apply adaptation pathways in the infrastructure sector.
It intends the standard to be useful to planners, engineers, designers, asset managers and climate adaptation specialists in organisations of all sizes.
Among other things, the PAS will set out governance requirements, including responsibilities and key metrics. It will also provide guidance on choosing appropriate climate change scenarios.
The standard’s lead technical author is John Dora, director of the Climate Sense consultancy. He will work with a team of expert stakeholders, supported by a group of funders from industry and academia.
Why has the ICE chosen productivity as a PAS topic?
The institution has been working to improve infrastructure productivity for several years. Like climate adaptation, it’s an important and intricate area in which consensus, particularly on best-practice principles, has been hard to achieve.
The ICE’s State of the Nation 2022 report shared key lessons from its research into how to boost productivity at every stage of the infrastructure lifecycle. The forthcoming PAS will be based on these.
As well as providing a code of practice defining productivity in infrastructure, the standard will give guidance on how to optimise it throughout the lifecycle of a project.
The ICE is partnering with the Department for Transport on this standard, along with other key stakeholders in industry and academia.
Extracted from ICE website, read more here