0:01

NPR. In

0:12

2011, Dan Richard got a call

0:14

from California's governor at the time,

0:16

Jerry Brown. And Jerry Brown

0:18

had a job offer for him. That

0:21

actually turned down. But they kept talking.

0:24

And eventually they got to this other idea that

0:26

had been around for decades. And

0:28

then they got to the high speed rail. A super fast

0:31

train that would take passengers from LA to

0:33

San Francisco in just two and a half

0:35

hours. Nothing like this had ever

0:37

been done before in the US. And

0:39

at this time, it was more than a dream. It

0:41

had a budget. $33 billion

0:43

when it went to voters a few years prior.

0:46

It had a completion date, 2020. It

0:48

also had a board. So Dan,

0:51

a veteran transport executive, said, I

0:53

could help there. And

0:55

I believe I literally said the words to him,

0:57

how hard could that be? So

1:00

he gave me an opportunity to find out. How

1:05

hard could it be? Well,

1:07

Dan soon learned that California high

1:09

speed rail was victim to what

1:12

often plagues mega projects, enormous

1:14

cost overruns and delays. Today on

1:16

the show, how to build big.

1:19

From California high speed rail to the

1:21

Sydney Opera House, we will learn the

1:24

do's and don'ts on leading ambitious projects.

1:29

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carvana.com. or download the app

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today to get started. On

2:03

this week's episode of Wild Card, comedian Bowen

2:05

Yang says you don't have to feel bad

2:08

for falling short on mindfulness. I get in

2:10

my own way by like overprivileged

2:13

the present. That's

2:15

so interesting because everyone wants to be in the

2:17

present. I feel like being present

2:20

is overrated. I'm Rachel Martin, join

2:22

us for NPR's Wild Card Podcast, the

2:24

game where cards control the conversation. To

2:28

learn how to build big projects

2:30

like high-speed rail, Bent Floupayer is

2:32

the go-to guy. He's a professor

2:34

at Oxford University and IT University

2:36

of Copenhagen. And Bent

2:38

and his colleagues have discovered this

2:41

striking pattern with megaprojects. As in

2:43

railroads, tunnels, mines, airports, that kind

2:45

of thing, he calls

2:47

this pattern the iron law of

2:49

megaprojects. The best majority of

2:51

projects are unsuccessful and not

2:53

just by a little, by a lot. Bent

2:56

found that 99.5% of megaprojects were

2:59

over time, over budget, or had

3:02

lower benefits than expected, often

3:04

a combination of these things. And California

3:06

high-speed rail has gone over time and

3:08

budget, which is not that unusual. Rail

3:11

projects are typically 40% over budget, but

3:14

by 2011, costs for the high-speed

3:16

rail had tripled. Bent's research has

3:19

uncovered a few lessons that megaprojects

3:21

like high-speed rail could learn from.

3:24

And the first lesson is the

3:26

importance of actual experience in the

3:28

exact type of project. Experience, as

3:30

he really makes a difference. And

3:33

often this is disregarded when you

3:35

talk about project leadership. Bent points

3:37

out there are no modern high-speed rails in

3:39

the US at the moment. So essentially there's

3:42

no experience building those in this country. And

3:44

he's particularly critical of the California

3:46

high-speed rail project for not awarding

3:49

contracts to overseas companies with experience.

3:51

They didn't hire the people who are planning to

3:53

build high-speed rail lines before. They decided

3:56

to reinvent the wheel. Several countries

3:58

have high-speed rail, famously.