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Written by: Gunn Ochaphan
Contact: gunnochaphan@gmail.com
Infrastructure megaprojects are crucial to the cities, states, and individual livelihoods. It's so important that keeps the cities running and our basic needs satisfied.
But almost every megaprojects failed. they often go off the rails, either with time or budget - or both. All of them are expanding and at the same time running late. Bent Flyvbjerg, an expert in project management at Oxford’s business school, estimated that nine out of ten go over budget.
There's three main reasons
Luckily, most problems are systematic errors and, hence, can be identified and addressed.
To the poor justification and need of projects, key is to first establish social and economic priorities and only then to consider what projects are best suited to deliver them.That requires developing independent and robust analyses on the true cost and benefits. The process for selecting projects needs to be fact based and transparent to ensure accountability.
Lacking of adequate controls over the progress. This limits the partners’ ability to figure out how to accelerate project delivery and control cost overruns. A more sophisticated approach is to use real-time data that measures activity in the field, such as cubic meters of concrete poured or earth moved, relative to work plans and budgets. This differs from the usual approach, which is to track progress by measuring funds paid to contractors relative to budget. Measuring progress on the basis of cash flow, however, is less than ideal, because usually it takes more than 30 days to pay. That means the related data are out of date.
Do the engineering and risk analysis before starting construction. this is often stated but rarely followed. Most project-developments organizations are reluctant to spend a significant amount of money on early-stage engineering and design for three reasons
if project developers or project sponsors spend 3 to 5 percent of the capital cost of the project on early-stage engineering and design, it tends to produce far better results in on-time and on-budget delivery.
Streamline permitting and land acquisition. Best practices in issuing permits involve prioritizing projects, defining clear roles and responsibilities, and establishing time limits all along the way, including on public review. Providing “one stop shop” permitting can help.
Build a project team with the right mix of abilities. Without a well-resourced and qualified network of project managers, advisers, and controllers, projects will not deliver the best possible return on investment. At worst, they will fail.
Investors and owners need to take more active role in putting together a team. They need to create a detailed, practical approach to deal with such likely eventualities as managing quality risks, escalating contractor’s costs, or replacing a high-tech supplier. n experienced project manager is not enough; players must assemble a team that has all the requisite skills, including legal and technical expertise, contract management, project reporting, regulatory approval, stakeholder management, and government and community relations.