Project Insider Asia https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/ Forensic investigations into the decisions behind the world's most expensive project failures. en-gb Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 Fukushima Daiichi: A Manmade Disaster: How Japan's Nuclear Establishment Designed Out the Warning Signs https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/fukushima-nuclear/ The National Diet of Japan's independent investigation called Fukushima Daiichi 'a profoundly manmade disaster' — the product of regulatory… Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/fukushima-nuclear/ Foxconn in Wisconsin: The $10 Billion Factory That Never Was: 13,000 Promised Jobs, More Than $4 Billion in Pledged Taxpayer Support, and the Field in Mount Pleasant Where Microsoft Now Builds Instead https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/foxconn-wisconsin/ In July 2017, Foxconn stood beside President Trump at the White House and promised a $10 billion LCD factory in Racine County, Wisconsin, creating… Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/foxconn-wisconsin/ Palm Jumeirah: The Island That Engineering Built and the Crash Nearly Sank: GPS-Guided Dredging, a Crescent Breakwater and an Honest Ledger: Marine Engineering Triumph, Debt-Crisis Casualty, Environmental Argument https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/palm-jumeirah/ Palm Jumeirah turned five kilometres of open Gulf water into a palm-shaped island of villas, hotels and 72 kilometres of new shoreline — an exercise in… Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/palm-jumeirah/ Changi Airport Terminal 5: The Most Disciplined Mega-Airport Programme Still in Delivery: In Delivery, Not Delivered: What Changi's Governance Record — T1 to Jewel — Tells Us to Watch as Terminal 5 Builds Towards the Mid-2030s https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/changi-airport-t5/ A note of honesty first: Changi Airport Terminal 5 has not been delivered, and this investigation claims no completed success. What exists is the… Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/changi-airport-t5/ California High-Speed Rail: From $33 Billion to $128 Billion: How the Ballot Promise Became a Case Study in Megaproject Cost, Scope and Schedule Change https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/california-high-speed-rail/ In November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A: $9.95 billion in bonds towards a $33 billion high-speed railway from San Francisco to Los… Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/california-high-speed-rail/ HS2: How Cost, Scope and Schedule Changed Britain's High-Speed Rail Programme: From £33 Billion to over £100 Billion: How Britain's Flagship Railway Lost Major Sections of Scope and Faced Repeated Cost and Schedule Revisions https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/hs2-high-speed-rail/ High Speed 2 was sold to Parliament in 2011 as a £33 billion railway linking London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. By October 2023 the northern… Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/hs2-high-speed-rail/ Burj Khalifa: The Supertall Megaproject That Finished on Time in a Financial Storm: How Emaar, SOM and Samsung C&T Delivered the World's Tallest Building While Dubai Faced the Global Financial Crisis and a Severe Property and Debt Downturn https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/burj-khalifa/ The Burj Khalifa — 828 metres, 163 floors — was designed, engineered and built between 2003 and 2010, and it opened almost exactly on its original… Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/burj-khalifa/ Apple Park: How Design Ambition Shaped a Multi-Billion-Dollar Headquarters: Inside the US$5 Billion Campus Where Product-Design Governance Met Construction — and Won, Slowly https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/apple-park/ Apple Park is the rare mega-building where the client was the design system. Presented by Steve Jobs to Cupertino's council in 2011 in his final public… Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/apple-park/ Kansai International Airport: The Sinking Island: How a ¥1.45 Trillion Airport Outran the Geology It Was Built On https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/kansai-airport-sinking/ Kansai International Airport opened on schedule in 1994 as a triumph of Japanese engineering — the world's first major airport built entirely on an… Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/kansai-airport-sinking/ China's Ghost Cities: China's Ghost Cities: How Rapid Urban Expansion Ran Ahead of Demand https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/china-ghost-cities/ Over two decades, Chinese local governments built hundreds of new towns and districts ahead of demand, financed by land sales and off-balance-sheet… Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/china-ghost-cities/ Ever Given: Six Days That Stopped World Trade: How a 400-Metre Ship, a Sandstorm and a Chain of Contested Decisions Blocked the Suez Canal and Triggered a $916 Million Claim https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/ever-given-suez/ On 23 March 2021 the 20,000-TEU container ship Ever Given ran aground in high winds in the single-lane southern reach of the Suez Canal, wedging… Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/ever-given-suez/ TSMC's GigaFab Programme: The Megaproject Machine That Never Stops: How TSMC Turned a US$17 Billion Fab From a Major Capital Programme Into a Repeatable Delivery System https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/tsmc-semiconductor-fabs/ TSMC has industrialised the world's hardest construction problem. While most organisations struggle to deliver one complex facility on time, TSMC has… Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/tsmc-semiconductor-fabs/ Crossrail Software Integration Failure: Why the Tunnels Were Easy and the Code Was Impossible https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/crossrail-software-integration-failure/ Crossrail's 42km of tunnels were dug on time and on budget. The software integration — getting the central-tunnel signalling to work with ETCS on the… Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/crossrail-software-integration-failure/ Theranos Fraud: How Elizabeth Holmes Built a $9 Billion Empire on Technology That Never Worked https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/theranos-fraud-governance-failure/ Elizabeth Holmes raised $700 million, built a $9 billion valuation, and signed a partnership with Walgreens while claiming — falsely, the SEC found… Sat, 25 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/theranos-fraud-governance-failure/ Sydney Opera House Cost Overrun: When a 1,450% Budget Blowout Created a National Icon https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/sydney-opera-house-cost-overrun/ The Sydney Opera House started at A$7 million and ended at A$102 million. It opened 10 years late and 14 years after the design competition. The… Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/sydney-opera-house-cost-overrun/ JPMorgan CIO Trading Loss: How the London Whale Lost $6.2 Billion and Exposed Shadow IT Risk https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/jpmorgan-cio-loss/ JPMorgan recorded approximately $6.2 billion in losses from the CIO Synthetic Credit Portfolio. Subsequent investigations identified serious weaknesses… Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/jpmorgan-cio-loss/ Hong Kong International Airport: From Chaotic Opening to World Benchmark: Hong Kong International Airport: How the Opening Crisis Was Stabilised and Operations Improved https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/hong-kong-airport-recovery/ Hong Kong International Airport's 6 July 1998 opening was a documented operational disaster: cargo collapse, baggage failures, IT outages. Yet within a… Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/hong-kong-airport-recovery/ NASA Mars Climate Orbiter Failure: The $327 Million Unit Conversion Error https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-failure/ In 1999, NASA's $327 million Mars Climate Orbiter was lost, believed to have disintegrated in the Martian atmosphere. The cause? Lockheed Martin built… Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-failure/ JPMorgan London Whale: The Excel Error Behind a $6 Billion Loss https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/jpmorgan-london-whale-excel-error/ In 2012, JPMorgan Chase lost $6.2 billion in the 'London Whale' trades. A flawed VaR spreadsheet — a division-by-sum instead of division-by-average… Sat, 18 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/jpmorgan-london-whale-excel-error/ Denver Airport Baggage System Failure: When a $200 Million Automation Bet Met Physical Reality https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/denver-airport-baggage-system-failure/ Denver International Airport's automated baggage system — which cost roughly $200 million — promised to revolutionise air travel. Instead, as press… Wed, 15 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/denver-airport-baggage-system-failure/ Denver Airport Baggage System: The Automated Baggage System That Delayed an Airport by 16 Months https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/denver-airport-baggage/ Denver International Airport promised the world's most advanced baggage system. Instead, testing exposed serious reliability problems, including… Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/denver-airport-baggage/ Heathrow Terminal 5: Managing Severe Engineering Risk: Heathrow Terminal 5: Successful Construction, Difficult Operational Opening https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/heathrow-terminal-5/ Heathrow Terminal 5 was delivered on schedule and broadly on budget through the groundbreaking T5 Agreement — client-held risk, integrated teams… Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/heathrow-terminal-5/ Crossrail Delay: How Europe's Largest Infrastructure Project Lost Control of Its Software Integration https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/crossrail-delay-governance-failure/ Crossrail's tunnels were finished on time. The software was not. The August 2018 delay announcement prompted a public dispute over who knew what and… Sun, 12 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/crossrail-delay-governance-failure/ NHS IT Programme Failure: Why £6.4 Billion of Spending Could Not Buy Digital Transformation https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/nhs-it-programme-failure/ The UK's National Programme for IT had an estimated total cost of £12.7 billion, of which about £6.4 billion had been spent by 2011, digitising NHS… Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/nhs-it-programme-failure/ Berlin Brandenburg Airport Failure: Berlin Brandenburg Airport: How Governance, Design Changes and Technical Problems Drove Years of Delay https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/berlin-brandenburg-airport-failure/ Berlin Brandenburg Airport was meant to open in 2011. It finally opened in 2020, costing €7 billion against a €2 billion budget. Ghost trains ran to… Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/berlin-brandenburg-airport-failure/ Theranos Fraud: Theranos: How False Claims, Weak Governance and Failed Technology Led to Criminal Convictions https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/theranos-fraud/ Theranos raised hundreds of millions of dollars while its blood-testing technology failed to perform as publicly represented. This investigation… Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/theranos-fraud/ Queensland Health Payroll: Queensland Health Payroll: How a A$6.19 Million Contract Developed Into a Major Public-Sector IT Failure https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/queensland-payroll/ In December 2007 the State of Queensland signed a fixed-price contract worth A$6.19 million with IBM Australia to replace Queensland Health's ageing… Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/queensland-payroll/ Mars Climate Orbiter: Pound-Force, Newtons and the Systems-Engineering Failure Behind a Famous Number https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/mars-orbiter/ On 23 September 1999, NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter fired its main engine to enter orbit around Mars and was never heard from again. The Mishap… Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/mars-orbiter/ Delhi Metro: The Megaproject That Delivered: Delhi Metro Phase I: How Governance and Delivery Structure Supported Timely Delivery https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/delhi-metro-success/ Delhi Metro's Phase I was substantially completed around 2005, roughly three years ahead of the original schedule projection and close to its… Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/delhi-metro-success/ Boeing 737 MAX Failure: How MCAS, Certification and Organisational Failures Contributed to Two Fatal Crashes https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/boeing-737-max-failure/ In October 2018 and March 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed, killing 346 people. MCAS was a central factor in both crashes. Accident… Sun, 05 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/blog/boeing-737-max-failure/ Sydney Opera House: The A$102 Million Project That Became a Priceless National Icon https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/sydney-opera-house/ The Sydney Opera House opened 10 years late, and its final cost of A$102 million was roughly 14 times the original A$7 million budget — roughly a… Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/sydney-opera-house/ Crossrail Delay: London's £18.9 Billion Train Line: Three Years Late, Now the UK's Busiest Railway https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/crossrail-delay/ Crossrail's tunnels were built on time. Systems integration, testing, commissioning and programme-management challenges were major contributors to the… Mon, 22 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/crossrail-delay/ NHS National Programme for IT: NHS National Programme for IT: What Was Delivered, What Was Abandoned and Why the Programme Was Dismantled https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/nhs-national-programme-it/ The NHS National Programme for IT was meant to revolutionise healthcare technology. Instead, it became one of the largest and most costly public-sector… Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/nhs-national-programme-it/ Berlin Brandenburg Airport: Berlin Brandenburg Airport: How Governance, Design Changes and Technical Problems Drove Years of Delay https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/berlin-brandenburg-airport/ Berlin Brandenburg Airport was meant to open in 2011. It finally opened in 2020, costing €7 billion against a €2 billion budget. Ghost trains ran to… Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/berlin-brandenburg-airport/ Boeing 737 MAX: Boeing 737 MAX: How MCAS, Certification and Organisational Failures Contributed to Two Fatal Crashes https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/boeing-737-max/ In October 2018 and March 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed, killing 346 people. MCAS was a central factor in both crashes. Accident… Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://www.projectinsiderasia.com/investigations/boeing-737-max/