Cities & Infrastructure

Combining economic and social development experience with our financial modeling expertise to develop cities and infrastructure

Recent reporting suggests that by 2050, more than 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, a growth of 2.5 billion from today. To meet the needs of their citizens, cities must invest heavily in infrastructure and building space. Managing these investments, while encouraging economic growth and safeguarding natural resources, is a difficult task.

We work with organizations to plan and develop cities that support growth, without compromising environmental or social sustainability. We aim to resolve the critical issues faced when planning, financing, developing, constructing, and operating infrastructure projects to reduce cost and accelerate and optimize projects.

What we do

Develop urban growth and transformation strategy

Developing municipal system strategy and plans and accelerating the delivery of municipal initiatives through implementation support.

Enhance governance and performance management

Designing municipal system governance, defining roles and responsibilities for key stakeholders, and developing performance management.

Maximize revenue

Implementing programs that increase revenue from taxes, fees, and fines, as well as improving monetization of assets and resources—such as land and data.

Decrease infrastructure cost

Designing and executing municipal and major infrastructure projects to reduce costs across both capital and operating investments.

Develop public-private partnerships

Developing engagement strategies for the private sector to optimize financing opportunities and improve feasibility of municipal projects.

Design and deliver digital city infrastructure

Developing strategies for using digital technology to address public challenges and improve service delivery.

Increase housing options and livability

Supporting housing authorities and developers to increase access to affordable housing solutions and improve the quality of life for citizens.

Make cities more mobile

Designing and implementing initiatives that reduce transit time, increase access to public transport, and create world-class mobility innovations.

Rethink city design and development

Creating and actioning municipal and district master plans that support sustained, inclusive growth.

Focus on sustainability

Designing risk assessment and abatement initiatives to reduce the exposure of global cities to external shocks—including resource efficiency, climate change response, and resiliency efforts.

Examples of our work

Constructing an iconic 12-lane bridge

Worked with a global engineering company to conduct an outside-in analysis of their design methods and run workshops on applicability and feasibility. The client used this new approach and the 11 improvement ideas generated from the assessment to redesign the project. Overall, our impact generated savings of 23 percent on structural cost (15 percent of total) and saved six months on instruction time.

Facilitating a digital transformation

Partnered with a principal governing municipal authority to develop a transformation roadmap and implement centralized solutions for citizen-facing services that spread across 16 regions and about 280 municipalities. We launched a citizen-services portal, developed target architecture, and implemented the necessary governance model to cover the municipal ecosystem, as well as streamlining processes to reduce licensing time to one month, from six months.

Managing an overcrowded urban center

With a population exceeding 11 million, a European city’s roads were constantly jammed and its public transport systems overloaded. We helped the client analyze the current and future demand and economics, and then develop plans for a high-capacity urban transit system to service the city center and surrounding areas. We supported them to define and implement a new parking policy, develop a new taxi policy, and implement a program to better manage existing public transport operators.

Redeveloping an urban area

Because of the size of a Latin American city’s existing population and anticipated growth, the area faced significant environmental challenges, as well as infrastructure and funding gaps. We supported the city in creating an actionable plan to make sure the area was operationally self-sufficient, aligned with the city’s cultural and environmental objectives, and amenable to future complex upgrades and additions.