Mega Infrastructure Projects Research Articles

Effects of justice perception on contractor value co-creation behavior in infrastructure megaprojects: the mediating role of psychological ownership

PurposeAs the complexity and uncertainty of infrastructural megaprojects challenge traditional management models, there is an increasing focus on value co-creation as an organizational strategy to streamline management. However, the role of value co-creation behavior in facilitating the value realization process remains underexplored. This study examines how justice perception (distributive, procedural and interactional justice) improves contractor value co-creation behavior, focusing on the mediating role of psychological ownership.Design/methodology/approachTen hypotheses in the proposed research model were tested through partial least squares structural equation modeling using 199 valid questionnaires from China.FindingsThe results show that contractor value co-creation behavior is directly and positively influenced by procedural, distributive and interactional justice and indirectly influenced by them through the underlying psychological mechanism of psychological ownership.Originality/valueThe findings fill a knowledge gap by examining the effect of justice perception on contractor value co-creation behavior based on social exchange theory. Discovering justice perception will contribute to contractor value co-creation behavior, and psychological ownership mediates this relationship.

How do principles determine the effectiveness of public participation in public infrastructure megaprojects?

ABSTRACT Ineffective public participation impedes the success of megaprojects. A solution lies in principle advancement, which can ensure public participation effectiveness in public infrastructure megaprojects. The fulfillment degrees of transparency, democracy, trust, and efficiency, which are evident in the Beijing–Shenyang High-Speed Railway (BSHSR), define the effectiveness level. Effectiveness can be rated as low, medium, and high levels, which match the three goals in practice, namely, compliance, reaching an agreement, and facilitating success, respectively. This study proposes policy implications, namely, improving laws, advancing evaluation criteria, and reshaping stakeholder roles, to implement the four principles. Globally, findings may clarify the understanding of the relationship between principles and public participation effectiveness.

Delivering social value via the construction of legacy infrastructure assets: the case of the level crossing Removal program of projects

Legacy is a significant factor contributing to an infrastructure mega-project's success, but limited knowledge exists about how it is planned and enacted. Our paper aims to address the following research questions: (1) How can an infrastructure asset deliver a legacy of social value? and (2) How can social legacy ambitions be identified and operationalised? In answering these questions, we use an exploratory case study approach to make sense of the experiences of Melbourne’s $19.8 billion Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP) being delivered over 15 years using a program of alliances. We show that the LXRP’s growth mindset was core to establishing its social legacy by influencing its vision, which shaped its strategy and triggered the design of its project delivery model, enabling the actions needed to generate social value to be realised. With limited examples of mega-projects demonstrating ‘how’ social value and legacy are created, the experiences of the LXRP offer a learning opportunity for policymakers seeking to construct transformative infrastructure assets.

China’s AI Development Model in an Era of Technological Deglobalization

As strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington centers on new technologies, a trend toward decoupling and deglobalization is challenging the global links upon which China’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector has relied for a long time. This means that Beijing’s AI development strategy must contend with an erosion of global interdependencies. This policy brief examines three key elements of China’s response: an infrastructure megaproject for computing power, a “whole-of-nation” approach to developing AI foundation models, and efforts to forge connections with foreign innovation systems beyond the United States. None of these come without challenges.

Repertorios de Interacción Socioestatal: Una Perspectiva Cualitativa del Tren Maya en Yucatán y Tabasco

The article studies the variation of socio-state interaction repertoires in Yucatan and Tabasco in the face of the same infrastructure megaproject. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contextualized meaning of the repertoires of socio-state interaction activated (or not) by local actors in Yucatan and Tabasco in the face of the Mayan Train. To achieve this purpose, a qualitative methodology is employed that emphasizes context, complexity and particularities, as opposed to generalizations.

A clash of clans: an empirical study of conflicting institutional logics and their impact on megaproject collaboration

PurposeManaging megaprojects is challenging due to their inherent complexity and uncertainty. Collaborative project delivery models have been introduced as an alternative to traditional project management in public infrastructure megaprojects and are often realized through collaborative contracts. These project organizations act as institutional arenas for logic interaction as actors with differing institutional backgrounds interact within the project. This paper aims to study the delivery phase of three megaprojects through an institutional lens, investigating the institutional interaction and alignment of logics therein.Design/methodology/approachA multiple case study was employed to reach deep insight into the phenomenon. Sixty-one interviews were conducted over 3 cases with representatives from all levels of the project hierarchy. Respondents were selected through snowball sampling. In two cases, observations of the shared project office were conducted. Data analysis built on first-order codes and second-order themes, collected into a theoretical framework.FindingsThe empirical evidence demonstrates the dynamics shaping institutional logics and gives evidence for changing logics in projects with a well-applied collaborative contract. However, there is a risk of resistance and a return to traditional logics since institutional change is slow and an unsuitably applied collaborative contract can lead to adherence to the conventional way of work.Originality/valueCurrent research has focused on the regulatory framework and procurement phase of such models, but little attention has been given to the delivery phase and the interaction of conflicting logics. This paper can serve as an exemplar of the different logics found within public infrastructure projects and their interaction and alignment. Contributions include a heightened emphasis on the start of the project as a meeting point for differing institutional logics and the role change necessary when using a collaborative contract.

Power and paths in transport planning and policy: the case of E39 Romsdalsfjord, Norway

ABSTRACT The appraisal stage is crucial to the later success of transport infrastructure megaprojects. Stakeholders must be engaged early to protect their interests. This article analyses power dynamics and rationalized knowledge in long-term timelines and trajectories using critical discourse analysis. It examines a case where powerful stakeholders directly influenced decision-making. The Norwegian Public Road Authority planners helped local and regional community stakeholders collaborate over 13 years. This collaboration successfully advocated for a fixed-link concept alternative in the national transport plan. The findings suggest considering changes to the planning framework and local execution.

Misfiring and still succeeding: Seeking success in megaprojects amidst changing regulatory environments

This paper analyses the complexities involved in planning and managing infrastructural megaprojects under changing regulatory environments. Through the case of the megaprojects by Autostrade, a motorway construction company, the paper illustrates that the notion of success is problematic and not easily defined when changes in regulations by regulatory bodies become sources of overflows, inducing changes in plans that had been previously agreed upon.Since regulations are dynamic, there may be a limit to which the initial planning parameters are legitimate benchmarks for the actualized megaproject's cost, time, and quality. It follows that a megaproject's success can result in orchestrating actions and reactions that involve both the capability of envisioning boundaries and demolishing them. This has severe implications for the notion of success itself, which does not easily fall into the traditional perspective of goal fulfillment but rather is linked to the inability to perceive the project's incompleteness.

Assessment and prediction of mega-infrastructure projects on rural ecosystems using machine learning algorithms

Assessment and prediction of mega-infrastructure projects on rural ecosystems using machine learning algorithms

Contestations over Scale Frames regarding the Sustainability of Mega-infrastructure Project Development

Contestations over Scale Frames regarding the Sustainability of Mega-infrastructure Project Development

Performance controls and accountability in African transport infrastructure megaprojects: A systematic literature review

Poor performance is common in the delivery of large-scale transport infrastructure. Despite previous studies examining the management of transport megaprojects, there is a lack of systematic reviews on performance Controls and Accountability in Megaprojects (CAMP). We analyze research on CAMP in Africa. Out of the 947 records retrieved, 35 articles published between 1980 and 2022 meet our inclusion criteria. We identify four main research themes: “project governance,” “performance management,” “project conceptual management,” and “complexity management.” Our findings indicate significant weaknesses in project governance and a lack of proper project conception. Practical implications involve restructuring project governance policies and implementing a multi-level project governance model. The research supports recognizing corruption as a characteristic of megaprojects, implementing project governance as a standard management practice, and improving governance in public-private partnerships. Additionally, future research should prioritize integrating and developing policies, strengthening institutions, implementing participatory governance mechanisms, and building capacity for project management.

The open veins of the Amazon: rethinking extractivism and infrastructure in extractive frontiers

ABSTRACT Scholars often approach the Amazon to explain the materiality of resource extraction in mining, oil, and agribusinesses. This region has been less used for theorizing the different scales and dimensions of extractivism, and its relationship with mega-infrastructures. This paper contributes to this endeavor by reflecting on the IIRSA, an ambitious portfolio of mega-infrastructure projects aimed at facilitating international trade with little concern for biodiversity and indigenous rights. Based on the analysis of policy documents and interviews, this study explores how infrastructure development in the Amazon relates to extractive activities and contributes to a deeper understanding of extractivism.

Broad-scale impacts of coastal mega-infrastructure project on obligatory inshore delphinids: A cautionary tale from Hong Kong

Inshore marine habitats experience considerable anthropogenic pressure, as this is where many adverse effects of human activities concentrate. In the rapidly-changing seascape of the Anthropocene, Hong Kong waters at the heart of world's fastest developing coastal region can serve as a preview-window into coastal seas of the future, with ever-growing anthropogenic footprint. Here, we quantify how large-scale coastal infrastructure projects can affect obligatory inshore cetaceans, bringing about population-level consequences that may compromise their long-term demographic viability. As a case in point, we look at the construction of world's longest sea crossing system and broad-scale demographic, social and spatial responses it has caused in a shallow-water delphinid, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis). Soon after the infrastructure project began, dolphins markedly altered their home range near construction sites such that these waters no longer functioned as dolphin core areas despite the apparent presence of prey, indicating that anthropogenic impacts outweighed foraging benefits. The contraction of key habitats has in turn led individuals to interact over spatially more constricted area, reshaping their group dynamics and social network. Although there was no apparent decline in dolphin numbers that could be detected with mark-recapture estimates, adult survival rates decreased drastically from 0.960 to 0.904, the lowest estimate for these animals anywhere across the region to date, notably below the previously estimated demographic threshold of their long-term persistence (0.955). It is apparent that during an advanced stage of this coastal infrastructure project, dolphins were under a major anthropogenic pressure that, if sustained, could be detrimental to their long-term persistence as a viable demographic unit. As effective conservation of species and habitats depends on informed management decisions, this study offers a valuable lesson in environmental risk assessment, underscoring the implications of human-induced rapid environmental change on obligatory inshore delphinids—sentinels of coastal habitats that are increasingly degraded in fast-changing coastal seas.

China’s experience of infrastructure megaprojects in Eurasia and Africa: Successes and contradictions

The research relevance is determined by the unprecedented scale of Chinese infrastructure initiatives, their potential impact on regional development and the geopolitical balance of power, as well as the controversial nature of their socio-economic and environmental consequences in the context of current global transformations. The study aims to provide a critical analysis of the successes and contradictions of Chinaʼs infrastructure initiatives. Synthesis, comparative analysis, critical analysis, modelling, structural-functional and systematisation methods were used in the study. The results of the study demonstrate the significant potential of Chinese infrastructure megaprojects to stimulate economic growth, and infrastructure development and deepen regional integration in Eurasia and Africa. However, despite the declared benefits, these initiatives are characterised by several contradictions and challenges. Large-scale Chinese investments carry risks of debt dependence for recipient countries, as they are often provided on non-transparent and unfavourable terms. In addition, the implementation of megaprojects is accompanied by high corruption risks, a lack of proper accountability mechanisms, and limited involvement of local resources and companies. This minimises potential economic benefits for the countries involved and hinders technology transfer and local capacity development. Chinese infrastructure projects are also often associated with negative social and environmental impacts, such as forced resettlement of communities, ecosystem degradation, and pollution. To overcome these contradictions, recommendations have been developed to introduce mechanisms for transparency, accountability, active involvement of local companies and ensuring a fair distribution of economic benefits among all stakeholders. The practical significance of the study lies in the development of recommendations for optimising Chinese infrastructure megaprojects, given the interests of the participating countries, which can be used to improve cooperation strategies with China and ensure the sustainability, mutual benefit and inclusiveness of these initiatives

Ecological restoration for mega-infrastructure projects: a study based on multi-source heterogeneous data

PurposeThis research aims to propose a model for the complex decision-making involved in the ecological restoration of mega-infrastructure (e.g. railway engineering). This model is based on multi-source heterogeneous data and will enable stakeholders to solve practical problems in decision-making processes and prevent delayed responses to the demand for ecological restoration.Design/methodology/approachBased on the principle of complexity degradation, this research collects and brings together multi-source heterogeneous data, including meteorological station data, remote sensing image data, railway engineering ecological risk text data and ecological restoration text data. Further, this research establishes an ecological restoration plan library to form input feature vectors. Random forest is used for classification decisions. The ecological restoration technologies and restoration plant species suitable for different regions are generated.FindingsThis research can effectively assist managers of mega-infrastructure projects in making ecological restoration decisions. The accuracy of the model reaches 0.83. Based on the natural environment and construction disturbances in different regions, this model can determine suitable types of trees, shrubs and herbs for planting, as well as the corresponding ecological restoration technologies needed.Practical implicationsManagers should pay attention to the multiple types of data generated in different stages of megaproject and identify the internal relationships between these multi-source heterogeneous data, which provides a decision-making basis for complex management decisions. The coupling between ecological restoration technologies and restoration plant species is also an important factor in improving the efficiency of ecological compensation.Originality/valueUnlike previous studies, which have selected a typical section of a railway for specialized analysis, the complex decision-making model for ecological restoration proposed in this research has wider geographical applicability and can better meet the diverse ecological restoration needs of railway projects that span large regions.

Fast-and-frugal heuristics: an exploration into building an adaptive toolbox to assess the uncertainty of rework

Performing rework within the production system of construction is the most expensive waste that confronts organisations, with its causation yet to be fully understood in practice. Any effort to assess the risk of rework poses challenges due to limited information about its frequency and causes, rendering the use of statistical models immeasurable. Research has shown that fast-and-frugal heuristics enable epistemic success under conditions of uncertainty and cognitive complexity – they are accurate, fast, and rely on limited information. Thus, this paper proposes the following research question: How can fast-and-frugal heuristics effectively assess the uncertainty of rework in construction? The theoretical framing of ecological rationality provides an environmental structure for bounded rationality to explore this question, enabling a person’s ‘adaptive toolbox’ of fast-and-frugal heuristics tailored for different epistemic and pragmatic decisions to be utilised. Situations during the construction of a transport infrastructure mega-project (>AU$18 billion) where there was profound uncertainty surrounding rework are presented. The heuristics, intuitively drawn from an individual’s adaptive toolbox used to form judgments to assess the uncertainty of rework, are identified. The theoretical and practical implications of the paper are discussed before presenting suggestions for future research to help build a robust adaptive toolbox to be utilised for assessing the uncertainty of rework in construction.

Megaproject and the city: Theorizing social media discourses across the lifecycle of an infrastructure project

Managing the perception of project communities is critical to the success of infrastructure megaprojects. This study focuses on the Nagpur metro rail project in India to understand people's experiences and discourses in the pre-construction, construction, and operation phases. We use qualitative content analysis and open coding of the tweets from five years covering the lifecycle of the project to understand the discourses. The study identifies focus areas such as improving customer experience, sustainability, value for money, and embracing the local community. It also highlights the importance of effective communication and raising awareness to address community concerns throughout the lifecycle. The study provides a framework for using social media for community engagement over the megaproject's lifespan. This research can help megaproject management teams plan efficiently and create a positive perception of their projects.

Roads and Rules: What Does Infrastructure Reveal about International Law?

AbstractInfrastructure has been the focus of geopolitically significant regional strategies, including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Asian Highway. Mega-infrastructure projects are thought to offer crucial stimulus to support economic recovery and “infrastructure diplomacy” efforts. Transportation projects, like roads, are material objects that offer complex questions for international law, most obviously when projects or their impacts cross borders. They are long-term and long-distance, with varying impacts upon closer and further populations and environments across the construction and life of the asset. This article draws on insights from new materialism to analyse what infrastructure's entanglements might suggest about international law. The relationship between international law and transportation infrastructure is contingent. However, there is a pattern to this contingency that foregrounds funding “gaps”, investment protections, and risk assessments, which minimizes intersecting impacts and human/non-human relationships.

Decision-Making Model for Evaluating Joint Venture Contractors in Construction of Complex Infrastructure Megaprojects

Due to the complexity of infrastructure megaprojects, using joint venture contractors (JVCs) is an effective method to deliver projects. However, this process is constrained by several factors, including the quality of competing JVCs and knowledge level of decision-makers (DMs). However, existing decision-making methods for megaprojects and JVC selection lack comprehensive JVC evaluation criteria and cannot handle decision-making scenarios using incomplete data. To address these issues, in this study, we propose a novel model based on a hesitant fuzzy soft set and a linear programming techniques for multidimensional analysis of preferences called LINMAP, which can process incomplete decision data and improve decision accuracy. Moreover, a set of criteria was constructed from four dimensions (economy, society, environment, and cooperation), which upholds the sustainable development and internal cooperation of the built environment. Finally, by applying the approach to a complex infrastructure megaproject and conducting a sensitivity analysis, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model were verified. Research shows that DMs in different specialized areas choose different criterion subsets, which leads to different decision-making results. For one, allowing DMs to choose a subset of the criteria can improve the accuracy of a decision and reduce the accompanying risks; further, a large gap exists between partial and global evaluations, so partial and global consistence must be included in the context of multicriteria decision-making; finally, cooperation is the premise of competition, i.e., good cooperation has a positive effect on competition, so the sustainable development of a JVC needs to consider not only economic, environmental, and social factors but also cooperation. This study contributes to the knowledge domain of multicriteria decision-making, extends the knowledge domain in terms of clarifying complicated evaluation scenarios in infrastructure megaprojects, and renders practical managerial implications for future complex evaluation processes in infrastructure megaprojects.

Investigating the effect of risk reduction strategies on the construction of mega infrastructure project (MIP) success: a SEM-ANN approach

PurposeManaging mega infrastructure projects (MIPs) is more complex because of time, size, social, environmental and financial implications. This study aims to address the management approaches, complexity and risk factors involved in MIPs. The study focuses on project success criteria and their individual effects on the success of MIPs.Design/methodology/approachTo address the challenges and identify the most influencing factor for the success of MIPs, the study deployed a cross-sectional survey approach. Six hundred eighty-two usable samples were collected from the respondents to understand the impact of predetermined factors on the success of MIPs. The structural equation model and artificial neural network approach were used to derive the importance of factors affecting the success of MIPs.FindingsThe study's outcome confirms that all three influencing factors: feasibility studies, community engagements and contract selection, have a significant positive impact on the success of MIPs. Community engagement amongst all three has the most influential predictor for the success of MIPs.Originality/valueThe developed model will enable practitioners and policymakers from Indian construction companies and other emerging nations to concentrate on recognized risk reduction variables to enhance project success criteria and project management success, especially for MIPs.