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How infrastructure investment can build industrial capability

Publish date
By Katharina Gerstmann, Market Sector Manager – Transport, NSW 

The Australian government is currently planning for a future high speed rail network. As the first high-speed rail network in the country, it’s set to be one of Australia’s most significant infrastructure projects in recent decades, promising to drastically reduce travel times and improve connectivity.  

But faster travel is only one potential benefit of this landmark infrastructure investment. Major transport programs can also act as catalysts for broader economic and industrial development. In Australia, high-speed rail has the potential to stimulate investment in advanced manufacturing capability, helping to strengthen supply chains, develop specialist skills and support long-term economic growth. And KBR has the skills to support this.  

Around the world, KBR and Frazer-Nash (a KBR company) support complex manufacturing programs across multiple sectors. Working closely with advanced manufacturing facilities, we design, test and optimise the processes, technologies and systems that underpin modern manufacturing. With the use of digital twins, robotics, data analytics and advanced modelling, advanced manufacturing facilities can be designed in a way that improves output quality, increases productivity and optimizes performance.  

Future infrastructure driving advanced manufacturing capability

A revival of Australian manufacturing is already underway. The country’s renewable energy transition has prompted demand for industrial capability to support clean energy production. To support this, the Australian Government’s Future Made in Australia agenda will boost the capabilities required to produce solar panels, batteries and process green metals.  

https://www.hsra.gov.au/new-manufacturing-opportunities-with-australia-high-speed-rail

Similarly, the proposed high-speed rail network has the potential to support a new wave of advanced manufacturing capability. Major rail programs can drive demand for specialised manufacturing facilities, advanced production technologies and highly skilled workforces, helping to build the industrial capability required to deliver and sustain complex transport infrastructure over the long term.

Unlike the mass production lines of the past, advanced manufacturing is extremely high-tech, using robotics, automation, and advanced engineering techniques to build products with precision. KBR and Frazer-Nash (a KBR company) support advanced manufacturing environments across transport, defence and energy sectors, providing insight into how modern manufacturing facilities are becoming increasingly digital, automated and integrated.  

Benefits beyond the facility  

New industrial precincts cannot be successful without also building the surrounding communities. As new precincts are designed, it’s essential that governments, town planners and developers make the right decisions for residents, considering liveability challenges, such as congestion and transportation issues, job opportunities and social engagement.  

KBR’s Sustainable Communities team provides decision makers with strategies and solutions to ensure new developments are well planned, resilient, environmentally responsible, and socially inclusive. By getting involved from the very early concept stages, our team helps shape the project direction before the ideas are fully formed. This way, new developments aren’t simply built with a commercial lens – they’re done in a way that holistically considers the people who will inhabit them. Considering everything from sustainable materials to climate catastrophe planning, right through to public transport access, smart city systems and community connection.  

While Australia's advanced manufacturing sector continues to grow, it remains relatively small compared to many of its international peers. Continued investment in advanced manufacturing facilities can help strengthen local supply chains, develop specialist skills and create the capability needed to support future transport, defence, energy and industrial programs.

While the transport, energy and defence assets themselves are important, the most enduring legacy is often the industrial capability left behind. By aligning infrastructure investment with manufacturing, skills and innovation, governments have an opportunity to create long-term economic value that extends well beyond the life of any single project.