MILAN, November 21, 2019 – “We have to focus on sustainability, resilience, adaptability, livability and intelligence. Our main goal is to create infrastructure systems that enable current and future generations to live in an environment in which everyone can prosper and fell connected to one another,” said Marco Assorati, executive director for Australia and Oceania at Salini Impregilo, at the opening of the World Engineers Convention (WEC 2019), one of the world’s most important events in the infrastructure sector. Held every four years, the latest edition was hosted in Melbourne, Australia between November 20-22.

“Engineering a Sustainable World: The Next 100 Years” as its overarching theme, it is addressing one of the most pressing issues of the moment: how innovation in civil engineering can help cities become technologically smart and develop sustainably to improve the people’s lives – an expertise that Salini Impregilo is bringing to the Australian market.

Described by its organisers as the “Olympics of Engineering”, the three-day convention is being attended by more than 1,300 people from more than 70 countries. The first plenary session was dedicated to the importance of introducing smart, flexible infrastructure to support cities as they face the challenges posed by growing economies and populations – all the while trying to meet the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations.

It is a challenge that is recognised in the political debate in Australia as the country faces an expected growth in population of 40% by 2040, concentrated in four cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Underlying the challenge of creating flexible cities with the technology to deal with this rapid development was the 2018 report “Flexible Cities. The Future of Australian Infrastructure” by The Economist Intelligence Unit and promoted by Salini Impregilo along with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), among the country’s best. It is with this same university that the Group is providing support to engineering students.

Australia is spending billions on infrastructure, with the collaboration between the public and private sectors on energy, transport and social infrastructure described by consultant McKinsey & Co as one of the most advanced in the world.

This long-term vision has Salini Impregilo preparing to develop Snowy 2.0, the biggest hydropower project in the country; work on the Forrestfield-Airport Link, a light rail line linking Perth’s eastern suburbs with the city centre: and provide the skytrain bridge and viaduct for Sydney Metro Northwest.