Tues PM banquet keynote featuring Virginia A Greiman

VIRGINIAA. GREIMAN
PROFESSOR OF MEGAPROJECTSAND PLANNING
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Tuesday, December 1, 2015

ENERGYTECH 2015
1 December 2015
Cleveland, OH
Virginia A. Greiman
Professor of Megaprojects and Planning
Boston University
Copyright © 2015 Virginia A. Greiman
Building Boston’s Big Dig: Navigating the
Challenges of America’s Most Ambitious
Urban Megaproject

What is a Megaproject?
Any project of $1 billion or more in size, or
projects of a significant cost that attract a
high level of public attention or political
interest because of substantial direct and
indirect impacts on the community,
environment, and state budgets.
(Federal Highway Administration)
“Initiatives that are physical, very expensive,
and public" (Altshuler 2003).

4
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGIES
1. Combined Theory and Practice – 10 prepublication reviews
and comments including PMI
2. More than 600 references (275 Scholarly) and source
documents, data, government reports, policies, 9000
procedures, feasibility studies and benefit analysis
3. 58 semi-structured interviews – perceptions of risk, cost,
schedule, financing, benefit realization, quality assurance,
leadership, governance integration, sustainability, project
success and failure
4. Interviewees – Master Designer, 12 Engineers, 2 Members
of the MTA Board, Director of Executive Oversight
Coordination Commission, 2 Governors, 2 Project Directors,
Utility Task Force Chair, 2 MTA Chairs, 9 Contractors, 2
Attorneys, 3 Safety Reps, 1 Broker, 2 Insurance Reps.
Senior Affirmative Market Inspector, Human Resources
Director and Assistant Director, Claims and Changes
Director, Director, Office of Public Affairs, Director, Save the
Harbor, Assistant Attorney General, Budget Director, 2
Program Managers, FHWA Project Auditor and Quality
Control, project managers – Heathrow Terminal 5, Crossrail,
Boston Harbor, Hong Kong Airport, Euro Tunnel, New
Haven Crossing, Route 3 North, Denver Airport
5. Themes – focus on schedule, cost, team effort, inherent
internal and external uncertainties, changing nature of
political environment, continuous design development,
evolutionary and constant change, need for flexibility to
reach goals, project employees inward looking, government
outward looking toward benefits realization.

California $68 Billion High Speed Rail
California high-speed rail will connect the mega-regions of the state,
contribute to economic development and a cleaner environment, create jobs
and preserve agricultural and protected lands. By 2029, the system will run
from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin in under three hours at speeds
capable of over 200 miles per hour.
Virginia A. Greiman © Copyright 2013

Canary Wharf Terminal One of the five £10m tunneling machines
5½ of 26 miles of tunnels now built.

Political Problems: Seabrook Nuclear
Power Plant Seabrook, NH

Megaprojects are Agents of Social
Transformation
The Planning of a Megaproject must be
different if a highway agency expects to
achieve success. Project leaders and the
management team must do more than just
manage a project; they must manage a
“public journey.”
Richard Capka, former federal highway administrator and
CEO/executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority
(Capka 2004)
Virginia A. Greiman Copyright © 2014

PMI’s 2001 and IPMA Project of the Year!!!
Mozal Aluminium Foundry Project – Mozambique

INDIA’s 100 Smart Cities Initiative

Turkey Urban Renewal Project
(Cost: $400,000,000,000)

Innovation Megaprojects
Poland’s Contribution to the Large Hadron
Collider Project at CERN
Poland Today, 2014-9-16
Wojciech Brzezinski

Innovation Megaprojects
Hsinchu City Science and Industrial Park, Taipei

Cloud Computing: Innovation
Megaprojects in Cyberspace

ARE MEGAPROJECTS REALLY
AS BAD AS EVERYONE SAYS?
“Measuring the success of a megaproject
is not linear. There are twists and turns
not only in terms of engineering and the
emergence of new technology, … but in
the moving target of pubic expectations.”
Anthony Flint, Atlantic Cities.com, September 18, 2013

Boston’s Central Artery
190,000 Vehicles

• 54 Designs
• 132 Construction Packages
• 161 Lane Miles
• 5 Major Interchanges
• Landmark Cable-stay Bridge
• Jacked Tunnels
• Immersed Tubes
• Soil Freezing
• Deep Soil Mixing
• 8 miles of Slurry Wall
• Jet Grouting
• Excavation and Parks
Boston’s Big Dig

EIS - Environmental Impact Statement ICE - Interstate Cost Estimate CSU – Cost and Schedule Update
Cost of Boston’s Big Dig
Greiman, V. (2013) Megaproject Management,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, London, Hoboken

Major Impact on Project Cost
and Schedule
Changing Stakeholder
Expectations
Continuous Design Development
and Unforeseen Subsurface
Conditions
Complex Governance Structures
and Integration
Federal Rules and Requirements

The Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge,
Boston - 26 Designs Preceded
the Final Design

Greiman, V. (2013) Megaproject
Management, Copyright © John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., New York, London, Hoboken

Fig. 2.3
Flooded Casting Basin: Central
Artery/Tunnel Project
Dry Dock Casting Basin: The Central Artery
Tunnel Project

Fig. 9.5
Fort Point Channel
Megaproject Management, John Wiley & Sons Copyright © 2013

Operations Control Center (“OCC”)

Project Security and Emergency Response
CA/T
Project
Project Security
and Emergency
Response Plan
Contractor
Safety and
Security
Requirements
Full time
project
security force
Terrorism
Risk
Assessment
Project
Control
Center
Fig. 9.12
copyright (c) V. A. Greiman 2015
Greiman, V. 2013. Megaproject Management, John Wiley & Sons,
Hoboken, New York, London

The Big Dig’s Risk Management Mission
Zero Accident Philosophy
Operating an integrated world-class
Risk Management Program for:
–Engineering and Construction
–Loss Control
–Safety and Health
To protect the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Big Dig contractors,
consultants, workers and the general public against catastrophic loss
by:

0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Rate
People
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
500
0
Peak Manpower/Year
Actuals per year
National Average
Recordable RateFig. 9.11
copyright (c) V. A. Greiman 2015Greiman, V. 2013. Megaproject Management, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New York, London

What is the Greatest Risk?
Unknown Knowns
Things that are within our
understanding but because of
perceptions, assumptions,
expectations and beliefs we have
not identified them as risks!
Greiman, V. Megaproject Management, John A. Wiley, Hoboken,
New York, London (2013)

The Problem of Perception
We see the world the way we do
not because that is the way it is,
but because we have these
ways of seeing.
- Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophische
Untersuchungen. Philosophical Investigations
(translated by G. E. M. Anscombe). Oxford:
Blackwell.
- Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical
investigations. New York: Macmillan.

Black Hawk Down
The Analysis of Black Hawk Down, found no
bad guys, no smoking guns, ‘‘no one to blame’’
It showed that the F-15 pilots ‘‘saw’’ Iraqi
helicopters because they expected to see them.
This was because the AWACS mission crew
failed to monitor the Black Hawk’s flight and to
report it to the F-15 s.
(Snook, 2000: 10).

MEGA PROBLEMS
MEGAPROJECTS

Crossrail chief says worker who died in
tunnel construction 'shouldn’t have been
where he was'
The Independent, 21 September 2014

Independent Safety Report
On 26 April, The Observer newspaper reported
details of a leaked internal report, compiled for the
Crossrail contractors by an independent safety
consultancy. The report was claimed to indicate poor
industrial relations over safety issues and that
workers were "too scared to report injuries for fear
of being sacked".
Boffer, Daniel (26 April 2014). "Crossrail managers accused of
'culture of spying and fear‘”, The Observer, London

Big Dig’s Worst Disaster
2006 Ted Williams Tunnel
Roof Collapse
Source: NTSB Report

Big Dig Tunnel Roof Collapse
National Transportation Safety Board Findings (2006)
1. Lack of understanding and knowledge in the construction
community about creep in adhesive anchoring systems.
2. Prior Incident - Failure to determine that the anchor
displacement that was found in the high-occupancy vehicle
tunnel in 1999 was a result of anchor creep.
3. Failure of the owner to implement a timely tunnel inspection
program that would likely have revealed the ongoing anchor creep.

Fig. 10.7 I-35 Highway Bridge Collapse, August 1, 2007
Minneapolis, MN
p. 19 copyright (c) V. A. Greiman 2015

Megaproject Success
Sustainability!
Realizing the holistic benefits of a
project and the anticipated return
on this investment that
demonstrates the value added in
the long term.
Greiman, V. (2013) Megaproject Management, Copyright © John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York,
London, Hoboken

EMERGING: SUSTAINABILITY OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL,
ENVIRONMENTAL AND
INSTITUTIONAL BENEFITS
• OPEN SPACE, PARKS AND ISLANDS
• RE-KNITTING NEIGHBORHOODS AND ENTRY POINTS
• EXPANSION OF THE SHELLFISH POPULATION
• VENTILATION / AIR QUALITY
• SMART HIGHWAY SYSTEM
• ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY/TRAINED
WORKFORCE/MINORITY/WOMEN BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
• UTILITY CORRIDOR
• INCREASED PROPERTY VALUES
• INTERMODAL

The Rose Kennedy Greenway

Integration on Large and Complex Projects: Managing
the Four Ps
T
The People
Program
Integration
The
Processes
Program
Methodologies

The Processes

Project Organization
Central Artery / Tunnel Project
Interface
MTA Positions
MTA Chairman
MTA
Headquarters
MTA General
Counsel
MTA Project
Director
Quality
Procurement
Internal
Controls
Accounting
Risk
Management
Public
Information
Fiscal
Administrative
Services
B/PB Program
Manager
Design
Design Chiefs
Geotech
Civil/Structural
Bridge
Engr. Services
Architecture
IPCS
Traffic Engr.
Traffic Mgmt.
Environmental
Elect./Mech.
Rowars
Information Tech.
Design Mgmt.
Area
P.E.
P.E.
P.E.
P.E.
Area
P.E.
P.E.
P.E.
P.E.
Legal
Claims &
Changes
Human
Resources
Construction
Metals
Safety
Cost &
Schedule
Construction
Services
Tech Support
Lab
Experts -
Means/Methods
Closeout/Training
Utility Maint./Cond. T.O.
Special Projects
Maint. of Traffic
Area
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
Area
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
Area
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
Area
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
R.E.
Construction
Management
Contractors
Milestone
Managers

SE and PM Integration

Partnering/
Dispute
Resolution
Stakeholder
Participation
Claims & Changes
Audit and
Oversight (OCC)
Knowledge
Transfer and
Innovation
Utility
Protection
Safety and
Health
Quality
Assurance
Risk
Management
Technology
Advancement
The Top Ten Programs!
Central Artery/Tunnel
Project Integrated
Programs
Greiman, V. (2013) Megaproject Management, Copyright © John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, London, Hoboken

What Have We Learned?
Megaproject investments are for future generations
Megaprojects should focus on the Program Domains –
Governance – Stakeholder Engagement –
Organizational Alignment – Benefit Analysis and not
just the iron triangle!
Megaprojects require “greater integration” due to their
complex, interrelationships with stakeholders and the
citizens they serve
Megaprojects can be Transforming – Seize the
Moment!!!!

The difficult is what takes a little
time; the impossible is what takes
a little longer.
—Fridtjof Nansen, Nobel Peace
Prize Winner, 1922
Final Thoughts

You must put your head into the
Lion’s Mouth if the Performance is
to be a Success!
—Sir Winston Churchill
Moreover…….

Virginia A. Greiman
Professor Megaprojects
and Planning
Boston University
617-353-6860
ggreiman@bu.edu
Thank You!
Questions???

Tues PM banquet keynote featuring Virginia A Greiman

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (12)

Similar to Tues PM banquet keynote featuring Virginia A Greiman

Similar to Tues PM banquet keynote featuring Virginia A Greiman (20)

More from EnergyTech2015

More from EnergyTech2015 (12)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Tues PM banquet keynote featuring Virginia A Greiman