Lessons from our Archive: the Thames Barrier, one of the first infrastructure resilience projects

Summary

The Thames Barrier project was completed in 1982 and arguably created a piece of infrastructure that has achieved the elusive elements associated with Cathedral Thinking. The Barrier represents both form and function; a beautiful piece of engineering that has already protected London and those living and working within it for 40 years and will continue to do so until the end of the 21st Century.

As part of our series to celebrate 40 years of the Major Projects Association, Dr. Stuart Pritchard offers his perspectives on the Major Projects Association report from 1993, which captured the lessons from the Thames Barrier project, completed less than a year earlier.

Read the original Thames Barrier Seminar Report from 1983 (Members Only)

A major environmental resilience infrastructure project – Thames Barrier

Stuart  kicks off his Lessons from our Archive recordings by giving us a sense of the significance of the Thames Barrier Project, completed in 1992.

What a different age it was then: the Thames Barrier Project!

In the second of his Lessons from our Archive recordings, Stuart Pritchard reflects on a project that was completed in an environment of strikes and industrial action, 25% inflation and using a workforce that was overwhelming masculine.

The client had to take on far more risk, in order just to get it moving!

In his third short video, Stuart Pritchard reflects on the extraordinary levels of industrial action in the 1970s; their impact on major projects such as the Thames Barrier and the level of risk the client was required to assume, simply to get the whole thing moving.

The Thames Barrier and points of similarity with projects of today

In his final, Lessons from our Archive, Stuart  highlights the unexpected points of similarity between the 40 year old Thames Barrier project and the world of today’s projects. These include the central role played by the model in the design, planning and delivery of the project – albeit the model in this case was physical and built in an old 360 foot army shed in Didcot – rather than a digital twin.

View the complete series of Lessons from our Archives interviews