Following my ‘Comment’ in the December 1999 issue highlighting the lost PR opportunity for tunnelling which London’s troubled Jubilee Line Extension represents, it has been pointed out to me that the JLE is not the only troubled millennium-related project.
Others in the UK include the huge ‘London Eye’ ferris wheel, which has still to carry a passenger, well past its planned millennium eve opening; doubts have been raised over the viability of the Millennium Dome at Greenwich; and even the Y2K bug failed to deliver the disruption many had predicted! Other notable trouble spots include the on-going debacle over the UK’s new air traffic control centre and last summer’s chaos in London’s passport office. No doubt, every developed nation could produce its own list of disasters, but is there a shared theme in these widely differing projects?
The only factor common to many of today’s projects that burst both budgets and schedules is the increasing complexity of the electronic systems that operate them. So poor is the track record of the computer industry in ‘delivering the goods’ that it is no longer expected that things should go right first time round, and it is almost a matter of course that these projects will run into problems. If such poor performance is unacceptable in the construction field, why is acceptable in the computer industry?
However, in a difficult world, one thing can be relied upon – T&T International – and here is our 2000 World Profile of Contractors & Consulting Engineers. I hope you find it useful during the coming year, and, as always, I welcome any suggestions as to how this special issue can be improved and developed.
