Opinion

How do you make the public love a megaproject?

According to Dr Rick Wylie the answer lies not in focusing on engineering detail but setting up governance  to underline the long term public social value of the investment.

Megaprojects often come in for a bad press. Think about HS2 or nuclear power stations. Projects that can divide opinion at the drop of the hat and for which even their supporters struggle to make a convincing case in the face of public opposition.

So how do we overcome this initial opposition to ensure complex megaprojects are as loved by the public as they are by policy makers? As discussed at a recent conference at the University of Central Lancashire, the secret may well be in helping the public recognise the value they bring.

"Due to their scale, megaprojects can affect many lives in many ways and are in a unique position to realise value in the public sphere.  In terms of their scale and substance there may also be additional benefits of the project which can shape policy in many associated areas, such as education and skills, health, social exclusion and wider infrastructure."

Megaprojects are by definition of a very large scale.  They involve sometimes dozens of private sector consortia members working on public-sector initiated schemes which can last for decades.  If the long-term may be characterised by all variables being fluid, then megaprojects may be characterised by their ‘softness’ and uncertainty, in respect of time, technology, cost and process. 

These uncertainties and associated risks mean that the governance arrangement should take into account the policy and political settings of the project as well as embracing its commercial context and multitude of collaborator organisations. 

The scope and scale of these projects makes specific demands upon their governance structure which, given their diversity and uniqueness, cannot be a standard model.

Evidence suggests that the governance architecture of these projects should be aligned with both internal and external contingencies specific to that project, and that it should be shaped by the wider context or project setting.

Due to their scale, megaprojects can affect many lives in many ways and are in a unique position to realise value in the public sphere.  In terms of their scale and substance there may also be additional benefits of the project which can shape policy in many associated areas, such as education and skills, health, social exclusion and wider infrastructure. 

For instance HS2 will enable people to travel more easily to London and the North but could also encourage the transfer of skills and strengthen business links as a result. Moreover, these projects can also connect places and communities with wider, global, networks of technology, markets and resources.  They may also, given their breadth and reach, involve organisations and individuals from public, private and sometimes social sectors, creating an enduring public value legacy well beyond the project itself.

The scope and style of their potential governance arrangements may also be seen as offering a significant route to identify and achieve public value.  Because of their complexity and uncertainty, and the speed of project implementation, trust based, interpersonal relationships lie at the heart of megaprojects. This means governance has to take into account complex networks involving multiple organisations and interests working over many years and across many different policy sectors. 

Support for a megaproject can be enhanced by its achieving public value – that is things of value to the public and which substantively enhance the public realm. 

Given their scale megaprojects are in a position to achieve these enduring benefits in two ways. Firstly, by their scope, size and engagement in many policy areas within the areas they are situated.  Secondly, their governance arrangements can foster wider dialogue essential to identify and accommodate wider interests. 

However, the challenge facing managers in megaprojects is to orchestrate these benefits in the public sphere while at the same time being able to operate within the necessary project management structures. 

Dr Rick Wylie is University of Central Lancashire’s Samuel Lindow academic director and executive director of the Applied Policy Science Unit 

More about social value

Delivering Social Value through Collaborative Construction - making the money go further

PPC/TPC annual conference

3 November, Royal College of Surgeons, London

Key speakers: Government construction adviser Peter Hansford, ACE chief executive Nelson Ogunshakin

Key themes: What is social value and why is it important?; Can social value can be combined with financial savings? Have social benefits been achieved through new procurement models? Do social value initiatives fit with BIM and EU procurement? What new opportunities can be created for SMEs?

More information here