Five things to know about transport project cost overrun

Transport projects are often in the news for the wrong reasons when their costs overrun. A new paper by Bent Flyvbjerg, the BT professor of major programme management at the University of Oxford, analyses the problem and suggests how planners and project managers can avoid their scheme suffering the same fate. LTT reports

Peter Love, one of the two authors of the original paper that was critical of Flyvbjerg’s work

Peter Love, one of the two authors of the original paper that was critical of Flyvbjerg’s work

Bent Flyvbjerg

Bent Flyvbjerg

W hy do transport projects so often seem to end up costing much more than originally forecast? Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, of the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, has spent a lot of time researching this question and his work has shaped the thinking of the DfT and Treasury. He says there is clear evidence that the costs of the vast majority of projects are underestimated at the point the decision is made to proceed with them. As for why this should be so, Flyvbjerg says the...

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