Megaprojects in infrastructure are critical for the future of cities, states, and human lives.
The issue is that these initiatives frequently go off track,
either in terms of budget or timelines, or both.
Overconfidence, complexity, and poor project execution are three of the most common reasons for project failures.
Costs and schedules are sometimes systematically underestimated and advantages are consistently overstated in order to justify a project, resulting in the project's failure.
Watch the video till the end as we will be sharing megaprojects that are more likely to fail in the future.
Canal Istanbul
First one in our list is The Canal.
The Turkish government has given its approval to plans to build a new waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
The new Canal Istanbul would run parallel to the Bosphorus for 45 kilometers (28 miles), with a depth of 20.75 meters (68 feet)
and a width of 275 to 350 meters, cutting through forests and farmland (900 to 1150 feet).
This initiative is more about domestic political consumption than it is about the actual undertaking.
Furthermore, due to environmental issues and investment risks, financing the large project in the long term may be unfeasible.
Even Turkish banks that may face political pressure to participate
have stated that the global sustainability pact inked by six of Turkey's leading banks is a hurdle to Canal Istanbul's finance.
Furthermore, the government's employment of dubious private-public partnerships to develop new hospitals,
bridges, and airports has resulted in a rising expense to the public purse.
The government grossly overestimated revenue, which it was required to guarantee. As a result,
billions of dollars in public funds have been spent in the last two years
to address revenue shortages guaranteed for transportation and other concessions,
along with Turkish lira's continued depreciation.
Proponents of the Canal Istanbul proposal believe that it will enhance ship traffic over the strait,
provide safer transit conditions for risky ship traffic away from Istanbul's heavily populated districts,
minimize entry wait times, and provide Turkey with significant transit payments.
It was also argued that the canal could provide a workaround for the Montreux Treaty's restrictions
on non-Black Sea countries' naval forces' access to the Black Sea.
On the other hand, the need for a new canal has not been proved as the shipping industry is not clamoring for a new route,
and the statistics do not support the proposal. While the
tonnage of ships is increasing slightly, the number of ships is decreasing. Although there have been a few mistakes and accidents on the Bosphorus,
thanks to traffic management improvements implemented by the Turkish government, no significant incidents have happened in over 40 years.
It is not necessary to build new infrastructure to improve transportation safety. Investing in coastal safety
personnel, state-of-the-art maritime tugs, and navigational equipment can make it happen faster, cheaper, and easier.
There are also considerable environmental issues to consider.
The proposed canal will devastate two of Istanbul's water reservoirs and put the city's groundwater reserves at risk.
Despite the fact that the canal, which might cost roughly $20 billion once the value of new and displaced infrastructure is taken into account,
the overall project's construction contract value corresponds to a $250 billion spending spree by the end of the decade.
All of Istanbul's highways, roads, water pipes, power lines, and gas lines, as well as entire neighborhoods, would have to be relocated and reconstructed.
There are several potential for corruption and cronyism in this mother of all construction projects.
Early investors, including government ministers and the mother of the Qatari emir, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser,
have already profited handsomely from land speculations along the canal's course.
Russia also poses a challenge.
Russia sees the canal project as a local political ploy in Turkey. That is why they have remained silent. They don't think the project will be completed.
If Turkey signaled any modifications to Montreux, Ankara would have to brace for a more forceful response. Turkey even revised the canal project's environmental impact report
to indicate that all Montreux conditions would apply to the new canal, and the Bosphorus would stay open to traffic,
after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the Russian envoy said they would not renegotiate Montreux.
Dubai Creek Tower, Dubai
Dubai Creek Tower, first announced in February 2016, was to be built ahead of the city's 2020 World Expo,
and would serve as the showpiece of a new development along the historic Dubai Creek.
The tower, rumoured to be over 1,300 meters tall,
would dwarf the nearby Burj Khalifa and become the world's largest man-made structure,
a demonstration of what the Middle East can achieve,
similar to the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 World's Fair.
Despite the fact that foundation work began four years ago, construction swiftly halted, and the project has been rumoured to be postponed or perhaps even cancelled.
Dubai Creek Tower was supposed to cost $1 billion,
but it wasn't expected to produce much in the way of usable space for a project with such a high price tag.
The structure, despite its enormous height, would only have 20 floors, with observation decks, restaurants, and a hotel.
However, floor space was not part of the brief for Dubai Creek Tower, which had two far more important goals to meet.
The first was to provide another jaw-dropping tourism attraction to the city,
and the second was to ensure that Dubai retained its distinction as the world's highest man-made tower.
The Tower will offer observation decks
with 360-degree views of the seaside city when it is completed.
Dubai Creek Tower served as a type of insurance policy, allowing the city-state to keep its coveted title without having to construct a full-fledged skyscraper from the ground.
This is especially true when you consider that the tower's exact height has never been published;
all we know is that it will be between 1,000 and 1,350 meters tall.
It would be taller than the 2,700-foot Burj Khalifa, which has been the world's tallest building since 2010.
Jeddah Tower, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia began construction of the Jeddah Tower in 2013, which was the world's first skyscraper over a kilometer tall back then. If completed,
the proposal would have dethroned Dubai's 828-meter Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building.
While it may appear to be a lot of work to construct such a massive structure merely to keep a title, having the world's tallest building in your country can be a significant economic gain.
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is an internationally known landmark that is credited with placing the city on the map.
It has also aided in the influx of nearly 20 million visitors and the $30 billion in spending that they bring to the city each year.
Diversifying with tourism has proven to be a successful strategy in a country eager to move away from an oil-based economy.
Work on the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia came to a standstill in January 2018
when its key finance supporters were arrested as part of the country's anti-corruption crackdown, and it has yet to resume.
Saudi Arabia's property market has weakened in recent years, and the city now has an oversupply of homes and offices due to the lingering impact from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and a reduction in the price of oil.
The pandemic's increased impact, as well as the accompanying worldwide economic crisis, may prove too much for the skyscraper to bear.
World Islands, Dubai
The World Islands, located around 2.5 miles off the coast of Dubai in the Persian Gulf,
are a group of smaller islands built to reproduce the world in miniature, with each island named after its own country. The World Islands were first introduced in 2003
and claimed to be the next great thing in luxury tourism. The development's history is a colorful one,
with rumors of celebrity purchases and absurd hotel ideas.
What was once one of the United Arab Emirates' most ambitious projects is now more akin to a sand ghost town,
serving as a symbol of the global financial crisis that hit Dubai hard in the late 2000s.
The World Islands, as is customary in Dubai, are not a natural occurrence;
the man-made archipelago was developed by Dubai-based construction business Nakheel Projects,
which is known for a number of high-profile projects in the region, including the St. Regis Dubai, The Palm.
The artificial islands were built by dredging sand from the Gulf and transporting it to the designated location,
where it was held in place by millions of tonnes of rocks.
The World Islands are made up of 300 islands, each varying in size from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet.
The complete collection spans 5.4 miles in length.
Despite the excitement generated when the World Islands were first revealed, as well as countless individual island sales, construction on the enormous project came to a standstill in 2008 due to the financial crisis.
Nearly $15 billion had already been spent at this point, but only one island development had been completed, with the remainder in various states of construction.
Developers were obliged to dispel allegations that the World Islands were falling back into the ocean amid the confusion of work pausing.
It has been nearly two decades since the development of Dubai's man-made islands began,
and a slew of issues have resulted in delays, nonpayment, debts, legal issues, and irreversible environmental damage.
Despite all of these unforeseeable factors that have jeopardized the project's viability, the developer, Nakheel, is not giving up. Yet.
The Line, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman,
presented plans for a 100-mile belt of zero-energy walkable towns that will house a million people.
There will be no automobiles on the streets in the linear metropolis, and all residents will live within a five-minute walk of basic amenities.
Bin Salman revealed his ambitions for The Line in a video, describing it as a "civilizational revolution" that prioritizes humans.
The city will be made up of city modules, which are interconnected settlements.
The 170-kilometer megacity will connect Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast with its northwestern region.
It will be part of Neom, Saudi Arabia's $500 billion completely automated area
that would span Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt and will run solely on renewable energy.
Drawings of the city feature artificial intelligence (AI)-driven vehicles, a metro line, and underground high-speed freight transportation.
A "pedestrian layer" will be built above ground, with two underground layers supporting it:
one service layer of infrastructure directly beneath the earth and a lower level "spine layer" for transportation. This spine will connect the various villages,
which Neom estimates will have a population of one million people and span 100 miles.
It will never take more than 20 minutes to go from one end of The Line to the other. Massive data collection will be used to enable AI-driven transportation.
The Line's creators claim that their communities would be "intelligent" and powered by AI, which will learn predicted methods to make life easier on a constant basis. The city will be powered by clean energy.
An estimated 90% of available data will be used to improve infrastructure capabilities, much above the 1% normally used in smart cities today.
The Line's layout will protect 95% of the land in the Neom region, which is located on an important trade route, according to Neom.
Buildings will be carbon positive and powered by clean energy. Neom was unveiled in 2017 as part of
Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiative to diversify the country's economy and reduce its reliance on oil.
However, after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, British architect Norman Foster, who served on Neom's board, temporarily suspended himself from the project.
Furthermore, many people currently live in the area where the line is expected to be built,
and forcing them to relocate against their choice will cast a terrible light on the project.
Furthermore, the project will necessitate substantial financial support,
which even a wealthy country like Saudi Arabia will be unable to provide. Overall,
it is a great project but there are too many loopholes that can make it difficult for the project to complete.
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