A megaproject (sometimes also called "major program") is an extremely large-scale investment project. Megaprojects are typically defined as costing more than US$1 billion and attracting a lot of public attention because of substantial impacts on communities, environment, and budgets.¹ Megaprojects can also be defined as "initiatives that are physical, very expensive, and public."² Care in the project development process may be needed to reduce any possible optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation.¹

Megaprojects include bridges, tunnels, highways, railways, airports, seaports, power plants, dams, wastewater projects, Special Economic Zones, oil and natural gas extraction projects, public buildings, information technology systems, aerospace projects, and weapons systems.

Contents 1 Examples 2 The Megaproject Paradox 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Examples

The Megaproject Paradox

The megaproject paradox was first identified by Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, in his book with Nils Bruzelius and Werner Rothengatter, Megaprojects and Risk³.

The paradox consists in the fact that more and bigger megaprojects are being planned and built despite their poor performance record in terms of cost overruns, schedule delays, and benefit shortfalls. For the majority of megaprojects, performance is significantly and consistently below what could be called "best" – or "good" – practice, when measured in these terms. This has been the case for decades and existing data show no immediate end to this state of affairs.

See also

• Megaprojects and risk
• Megastructure
• Macro-engineering
• Optimism bias
• Reference class forecasting

References

External links

• What is a megaproject?
• Borovoye-Biocity — megaproject of Bionic City for Kazakhstan — S. Rastorguev, M. Kudryashov, 2008