| This dissertation looks at risk encountered in transportation megaprojects. Risk and uncertainty are differentiated for three phases of practice. The project planning phase consists of developing a broad vision, technical analyses including but not limited to environmental reviews, and an extensive vetting among diverse community and political interests, resulting in continuous adaptation of the project definition. The project development phase consists of identifying project finance, the appropriate institutional conditions, and selecting a project delivery method for design and for construction. The project construction phase encounters risks from complex technology, supply and material chains, labor, inflation, and acts of nature. Risks are distributed through assignment in contract documents, incorporated through mitigations and enhancements, or assigned to third parties through insurance programs. Partnering, oversight programs and risk monitoring are management activities designed to identify, allocate, assign, control, document and report risk activity during construction.;Five recent highway megaprojects in the United States are used to examine the practice of risk. Interviews are conducted with practitioners at the projects. Their statements and experiences are compared to the literature on megaprojects. The period 1998-2008 has been an evolutionary one for risk management. Three of the projects were among the earliest transportation projects to use design-build contracting. Networks and communities of practice have arisen surrounding the domain of risk. Trust and transparency, communication and reporting risk information are critical components of the risk/results equation. Lessons learned from these five projects should be part of the national debate over infrastructure, finance, delivery options, and assessment of wide-scale needs and benefits. |
