Megaproject milestones

This chapter explores the evolution of megaproject practice through the lens of 28 globally significant megaprojects completed over the last two hundred years. It is organized chronologically into four overlapping eras. The first, spanning the years between 1825 and 1915 centered on building the great canals and railroads that opened up continental and global markets. A second megaproject era, running from the 1930s through the 1990s and largely centered in America, witnessed the creation of dam, bridge and highway megaprojects on an industrial scale, culminating in the creation of the U.S. interstate highway system, arguably the most transformative megaproject in modern history. A third megaproject era, which ran from the 1960s to the early-2000s, saw megaprojects go global, as newly prosperous European, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries undertook new airport, dam, tunnel, waterfront revival, and rail megaprojects on a worldwide scale. The fourth and current megaproject era is dominated by China, which, since the late 1990s, has simultaneously undertaken dam, airport, and especially inter-city and urban rail megaprojects at an unprecedented rate, and for the most part, with great success.