Can we cast resilience in concrete?

Infrastructural systems -such as railways- can be characterized as multi-actor socio-technical systems that are able to adapt during their life cycle, both to external disturbances as well as changes in the system itself. The design phase should mark the starting point for a resilient system to prevent ad-hoc and opportunistic design changes. A case study on the design and development of the High-Speed Line railway system in the Netherlands indicates that it is necessary to make both a technical and procedural evaluation of these future user’s possibilities before construction takes place. Once cast in concrete, the adaptive potential has been determined. The actors during design and operation adapt in different ways. During the design, the focus should be on the question which incentives are driving the designing parties towards a consistent and resilient design. The task for a strategic engineer or architect, is to understand how incentives and requirements influence each other and how they safeguard the future operational variance of the system and its safe performance. Such a strategic engineer should be involved in the project at the functional level, where requirements and incentives are formulated.