10 Most Expensive Construction Projects Ever in the World
We’ve often heard that money talks, we have even believed it even though we know that
our dollar bill doesn’t come with a long tongue!
Okay, bad joke!
The point is that money has the power to speak for itself because it equips humans with the
capacity to develop the society.
Apart from education, what is a major way to do this?
Construction, that’s right!
Big, important and expensive construction projects are the lifeline today and money
makes it happen.
But how much money could you burn for such development projects?
Loads of it, tons of it, way beyond your imagination!
Oh forget imagining, we have a list of 10 of the most expensive construction projects
ever, it’ll leave you awestruck!
Number 10.
The Channel Tunnel: $22.4 Billion Did you know that the Channel Tunnel is known
as “Chunnel”?
We must say it was a case of smart naming, 100 points for that!
Anyway, Chunnel spans beneath the stretch of water between the southern coast of England
and the northern coast of France.
It comprises of 3 parts, 25 ft in diameter, and one service tunnel 16 ft in diameter,
with each spanning 31 miles underground.
Whoa, that is not small but then it also took a lot of time, the machines began working
on it in 1988 and the tunnel was functional only in 1994!
But the most interesting thing is that it cost fifteen French and British companies
$22.4 billion to complete!
That’s a lot of money and since it is controlled by the financing group Eurotunnel, we can
say they have some real assets here!
Number 9.
The Big Dig- $23.1 Billion The Big Dig was the most expensive highway
project in the US, and was plagued by cost overruns, delays, leaks, design flaws, charges
of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal arrests, and one tragic death.
Even though its planning began in 1982, the construction work was carried out between
1991 and 2006.
That’s a long gap as you can see and when the project finally concluded on December
31, 2007, it was over ten years behind schedule!
We’d call it unpardonable!
But the worst part is that the delay cost millions of dollars more than it was expected
to.
All this happened because it was badly planned and went massively over budget, costing the
taxpayers an estimated $23.1 billion!
Isn’t that a little too much?
Number 8.
Kansai International Airport- $29 Billion Located off of Japan, in the middle of Osaka
Bay, the Kansai International Airport was another expensive construction.
After all a construction cost of $29 billion cannot be called cheap by any means, right?
Part of this money was used for metal support columns and other structural pieces that were
a must in order to prevent it from sinking.
What, didn’t we tell you that the airport rests on a man-made island?
Anyway, it was constructed to resist the semi-frequent earthquakes and tidal waves of the region.
Interestingly, it has withstood both typhoons and earthquakes successfully since it was
built.
This is proof that Japanese technology is not overrated!
Number 7.
California high speed rail: $33 Billion+ It started in 2015 and Phase 1 is expected
to be completed by 2029, good news.
But the flip side to this good news is that the California High-Speed Rail project is
already way over its original budget.
This isn’t so welcoming!
It is the first project of many that will be underway to complete one of President Obama's
first-term pledges, which was to connect some of the major US cities by high-speed rail.
What chief executive officer adds is for the project, Jeff Morales, has said that although
the project will cost more than the $33 billion it was originally budgeted for; the costs
are trending down due to new emerging technologies.
Let’s have a happy dance!
Number 6.
Songdo international business district-40 Billion
What do you think would be the cost of building a smart city from scratch?
If you have $40 billion in your pocket, you have nothing to worry about!
That’s how much is estimated to be spent on building a ubiquitous city in South Korea.
Songdo IBD is the smart city we are talking about which is built on 600 hectares of reclaimed
land along Incheon's waterfront, 40 miles southwest of Seoul.
It will be a "smart city" like no other, complete with ubiquitous WiFi, automatic recycling
plants, and other technological innovations.
Some replicas of landmarks from other cities will be built there, including one of Central
Park.
Sounds cool!
Number 5.
Dubailand-$76 Billion Let’s take you back to 2003, when Dubailand
was announced, it was one of the most ambitious leisure developments ever proposed anywhere
in the world costing $64.3 billion.
But Dubai’s financial crisis severely affected this and the project was paused in 2008.
It was later resumed in 2013 after a long gap is now expected to be opened for public
by 2020.
So far, it has cost investors a whopping $76 billion!
A Disney theme park and IMAX theater are some of the many other attractions in its plans.
But the best part is the design aspect of Dubailand which will be based on Arabian Folklore,
specifically the tale One Thousand and One Nights.
This will probably give a push to Dubai tourism!
Number 4.
King Abdullah economic city: $86 Billion This mega project was announced in 2005 by
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the then-king of Saudi Arabia.
Located a little over an hour away from Mecca, the city is sure to become a grand new tourist
attraction for Saudi Arabia.
It will be slightly larger than Washington D.C. and will house 2 million residents.
The city will include a couple of high class hotels, many luxury villas, some prestigious
universities, and a massive airport.
You can expect to see the city fully functioning by 2020 after about $86 billion have been
spent to create it!
Number 3.
Kashagan Fields-$116 Billion Located in the Caspian Sea, the Kashagan Fields
represent the largest oil discovery made in the last 40 years.
That’s quite a discovery we should say!
But the bigger news is that $116 billion has been spent on tapping it!
The operation is expected to produce over 90,000 barrels of oil per day, starting in
2017.
The total amount of retrievable oil that is estimated to be there is a whopping thirteen
billion barrels.
Can you beat that?
But leaks in its pipes and other difficulties have caused delays in construction of the
project.
The fields are under high pressure, which makes drilling into them very dangerous.
Number 2.
The International Space Station- $150 Billion Obviously this had to be on the list, we couldn’t
have left the International Space Station from this list!
The modular orbiting research station cost approximately $150 billion to complete.
Isn’t that an unbelievably huge amount?
Wait, you need to know that many countries split the tab.
The nations responsible for putting together the ISS were the US, Russia, Canada, Japan,
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany.
ISS might fall out of use by 2024 but we’ll have to wait and watch to know how it ends!
Number 1.
The US interstate highway system- $459 Billion Here we bring to you the most expensive construction
project, the US Interstate Highway System that has cost taxpayers an estimated $459
billion!
The project was started in 1956 and involved creating new routes, and converting old ones
to serve as "interstates."
The Interstate Highway System in America connects more than 47,000 miles and took almost 35
years to complete!
Despite costing much more than expected, and finishing many years after it was intended
to, the IHS has benefited the US and its economy in ways like easy evacuation and 17% lower
shipping costs.
Let’s just say, all is well that ends well!
Are there any expensive construction projects ever in the world that should be on this list?
Tell us in the comment section below.
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