I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
You didn't know this about the Chunnel
|
The Channel Tunnel, or "Chunnel," connecting the UK and France, was one of the most ambitious engineering feats of the 20th century. Over £9 billion or about $21 billion today. 50.5 kilometers (31.4 miles) of tunnel under the English Channel. Politicians smelling the blood of taxpayers… Paradise for corruption and things that can go wrong. During the project, some lonely managers noticed something strange. The daily records for soil removal from the British side of the tunnel didn’t add up. Thousands of cubic meters of chalk and dirt were being excavated, but the number of dump trucks required to remove it kept fluctuating wildly. Some days there were too many trucks, and on others, there were too few. They decided to investigate. Trucks were "disappearing" before completing their assigned trips to the dumping zones. Curiously only on the British side… Pirates! Well… In the Kent countryside near the British side of the tunnel, fertile soil was at a premium. Word had spread among farmers that the chalky spoil being excavated from the tunnel was perfect for enriching their fields. Every night, farmers were sneaking onto the construction site and bribing drivers to "accidentally" dump their loads on private farmland instead of at the official disposal sites. Some drivers were reportedly paid £50-£100 per load, and the farmers, thrilled with their new topsoil, happily spread it across their fields… ​ This illustrates the unexpected challenges of managing logistics on massive construction sites. As well as creativity of local communities, my friend, in "participating" in infrastructure projects… And missed business opportunities… ​ I created a document with the more important lessons learned of my last project. Probably not as spectacular… but some of them equally laughable. ​
​
​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. ​ ​ |
Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
When you spend enough time in Europe, you usually end dealing with a bank. It’s as lovely as a tooth pain. The EU is the bureaucracy hell of the world. A place that tells you even how the cap of a bottle of coke must be… and of course, they did not think about any market testing or user case. What for? Well… Banks. You can’t live without them, but you hate them. Mastodonts with benefits. Shield by government. Too much money invested in lobbies… or finding imaginative solution to hide bribes...
Many people challenge my preferred RFP strategy for PPPs: “Pre-qualify strong consortia, set a minimum technical pass/fail, and award to the best NPV bidder? They’ll just bid low and renegotiate later!” I get it. That tactic has been abused in Latin America for years. But we need to ask: Why has +20% (often +50%, +100%, +200%) become almost inevitable there? Let’s look at the real causes: Why PPP prices skyrocket after award 1) Renegotiation is systemic. In transport PPPs, up to 78% of...
Africa. Mid-2010s. You’re in the middle of a multibillion-dollar PPP. Your consortium is assembled. Your lenders are mobilized. Your bid team is burning cash like Tesla compensating executives… The agency launches the RFP. Everyone is excited. A fair, competitive process… in theory. And then it starts: Deadline extended. “More time to refine proposals,” they say. Another extension. Silence. And then another. “These guys don’t seem ready” Drop a new batch of documents in the data room. (Oh,...