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You didn't know this about the Chunnel
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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.
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Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
It was under control. Of course it was. April 15, 2019. Semana Santa, aka, Easter… again. The most iconic cathedral in Europe. Notre-Dame Cathedral Under renovation. Experts on site. Protocols in place. And then… Fire. Not a small one. Not, it was not a “candela”… but a catastrophic one. The roof gone. The spire collapsing in front of the world. Millions watching it live… with popcorns. Oups… This was not an abandoned building. This was not chaos. This was a controlled environment. Or at...
They opened it. And it collapsed. Just like that. March 2018. Florida. Around these “Easter” days. A brand-new pedestrian bridge at Florida International University pedestrian bridge. Award-winning design. Fast-track construction. Public praise. And six people dead. Just like that… Cracks had already appeared. Not hidden. Not subtle. Visible. I repeat… f**** visible. Engineers saw them. Discussed them. And decided there was no safety issue. Hours later… it collapsed. Let me translate this...
Something worse than pricing a mega-project with consultants? Adding a second consultant to “validate” the price. Worse? A third one doing a peer review. Don’t laugh. This happens… Every day. Governments behaving like headless chickens. Not knowing what to do… but doing something anyway. Anything. Because “we need robust numbers.” Because “we need to protect public money.” So they spend millions… just to feel safe. Good luck with that. Let me simplify it for you. When you renovate your...