1. Wembley Stadium
FA owned ‘venue of legends’. Over ran by 5 years, true cost estimated at £975m.
2. Sydney Opera House Danish designed, performing arts centre and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cost 15 times more than expected, opened 10 years late.
3. Suez Canal Expensive shortcut. 20 times more costly than expected, took 10 years to build.
4. Concorde Supersonic passenger jet. Cost £1.3bn to develop (£48m for every year in service), 12 times more than expected. At it’s peak, made over £5m a week for BA.
5. The Big Dig Tunnel
The most expensive highway project in the U.S, a megaproject that re-routed the main highway through the heart Boston, into a 3.5-mile tunnel. Plagued by escalating costs, design flaws, substandard materials, leaks, criminal arrests, and four deaths. Scheduled to be completed in 1998 at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion, the project was not completed, until December 2007, at a cost of over $14.6 billion. The Boston Globe estimated that the project will ultimately cost $22 billion, including interest, and that it will not be paid off until 2038.
