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E32: The biggest construction projects of 2024?
110 Plays10 months ago
In this festive episode, Jason & Carlos are joined by very special guest Olu Samson - producer and mastermind of the Off Site Podcast.
The three look backwards and chat through stand-out moments of the past year before casting their thoughts on some of the biggest projects in construction in 2024.
Do you know which project is £18bn over budget with 36 years left?
Can you guess more than Jason?
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Transcript
Introduction and Recording Issues
00:00:04
Speaker
You'd think by the end of the year an episode, Carlos, what number? 32. You'd think by that we wouldn't have got it working, but anyway. We'll get there by end of next year. By end of next year we'll have this recording thing down pat. We won't keep moving ourselves out of the meeting. We'll remember to hit record. It'll be so good.
Episode Introduction
00:00:38
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 32 of the Offside Podcast where we chat all things construction and technology. He's Carlos Carvalho and he's Jason Lancy. How are you doing today, boys? Very good. Well done. Are you not going to introduce yourself?
00:00:55
Speaker
My name is Olu Samson and I'm the producer of the Offside podcast. I wish I had a button where there was like a massive fanfare. I play that in the background. Do you literally have the soundboard? I do. I actually have a lot of buttons. I have this button.
00:01:17
Speaker
And I can add buttons and takeaway buttons, which is something we might do in the new year. So very good. All right.
Trivia and Competitive Banter
00:01:25
Speaker
So I am here because I've pulled together a couple of questions, a little bit of trivia based on the last 31 episodes that we've done over the entire course of 2023, which honestly is a lot more episodes than I thought we'd get to. But that's always always a good thing.
00:01:46
Speaker
So how do you guys want to do this? Do you want to do this as a team or do you always want to in the spirit of versus who by versus? Okay, versus QS is in that case. Yeah, who's going to keep count? I'll just produce. Did you produce the other answer then?
00:02:08
Speaker
All right, that works for me. Sweet. So for a lot of these, I'm not, I don't think you will get quite on the correct answer, but whoever gets closest gets the point. You can work in construction under promise and over deliver. That's the level. That's how you want to work.
00:02:25
Speaker
I mean, I've been working with you guys for a long time. I love a Christmas. There we go. Awesome. Right. So question number one, can you guess how many episodes in which HS2 is referenced either as a talking point or in passing? 44. We have
00:02:54
Speaker
15. I'm including the like the episodes we didn't record because Carlos swore on them and always talking about HST. Okay. Well, the official episodes that people have listened to. 15. 15. Okay. I'll take the under 14.
00:03:15
Speaker
oh wow so tactical i didn't think it'd end up like this um i don't want to give you the point jason because of that but you are you are the closest it's actually 10 um which is still a lot still way too many it's 30 of all our podcasts so that keeps that in mind uh question number two which guest do you think has had the most listens
Popular Guests and Episode Lengths
00:03:44
Speaker
I want to say Calvin or George Austin Skanska. On the basis that George was more recent, I'm going to go with him. Okay. Are you allowed to pick two? I thought we were picking one. I picked one, but I mentioned two as a foul say. I'll go Andrew Wojcicki.
00:04:06
Speaker
Carlos, you're getting smoked. Yeah. I bet Jason said that episode to every CPP user. I think the LinkedIn post of the clip over had like 150,000 impressions or something, so that might have had something to do with it. Okay, so question number three. Can you guess which episode has the longest runtime?
00:04:36
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Then why I recall one where everyone said it was really long, I just can't remember which one it is. Which is part of the reason I added this question. Is it the one where we looked at the different software companies? Episode 24. Is that your final answer? I love how you use the episode number. That is impressive. I know all the episode numbers. It's only 32, it's not that hard.
00:05:07
Speaker
Can you get out to 32? Yes. Still impressive to know the number. I'm gonna go... If there was a guest involved, you can mention the guest. Oh, come on. And what would the guest's name be, although you're giving him any more hints? I'm gonna go Georgeos again. I can't be wrong twice. Well, you're both wrong, actually. Final runtime for the longest episode was 35 minutes and 41 seconds, and that was episode 23 with Santosh.
00:05:35
Speaker
right that was a good episode though very good episode actually i had it as question eight but do you guys actually have a favorite episode yes that that's hard to choose um played the fifth all right i'll let you muse on this one this one because i'm showing my face yeah sweet okay well yeah that's the main questions answered now we're moving on to a
Audio Clip Challenge and Trivia
00:06:04
Speaker
more audio based round of can you guess which episode this soundbite is from i'm happy to give out a few clues because these these might be a bit tricky so number one i don't know what to do with my hands yeah also sweating right uh extra romantic because it's valentine's day and i get to stare at a six foot seven australian man for the next 30 minutes complete accident yeah well done three good guess
00:06:32
Speaker
uh four oh get out of here that's really as february we started in jan so it's not i don't think it was the second and jason said three say well jason's closer it's actually episode number one was it yeah first one you guys ever did quite interesting podcast on valentine's day that's how romantic
00:06:56
Speaker
Wow, so, Jason's got three and Carlos has yet to get out of the gate. Next clip.
00:07:08
Speaker
I'm good, I'm good. I think we need to start kicking off this conversation about when the mandated shutdown of this conversation slash podcast happens over Christmas. Start negotiating. Yeah, I'm not up for a Christmas Day episode, that's for sure. Where's the commitment? I think we should, I think we should do, take December and January on. And now we're talking about it on the 14th of December.
00:07:34
Speaker
That's George's that's it's a George's episode, which is I don't know whatever some number 27 the 20 That is it is it is not George's episode 24. Oh Is that a tie do I get a point half point I'll give you a point Hey But Jason gets a point as well
00:08:02
Speaker
Avoid the whitewash, that's it. I'm happy. The nudie run. Don't have to do the nudie run. Yeah. Awesome. And then for the last one. Without that killer app, these things become that novelty that sits in that special room that visitors that come to the project get to go into and turn on and they remember how to fire up the little demo. The hells are talking about that? Real pretty.
00:08:26
Speaker
I'll give you a clue that you were talking about the Apple VR headset. Fourteen. This is when we did like a few apps each. No, a few, it was something to do with technology that we thought would make it 12, 15.
00:08:46
Speaker
Okay, this is my ideas for what this would have been and what it has turned out to be. It's just it we've just played higher or lower for 10 minutes.
00:08:59
Speaker
Is that 13 and 14 in your final answers? No, he said 15 didn't he? He said 13. And Carlos is actually closer. It's 11 where we had Josh Webberly as the guest. Yeah, another great one. But yeah,
00:09:23
Speaker
That was my trivia for 2023 bit. Thank you all. Thank you very much. And a big shout out for you seeing the last 31 episodes. Yeah. And then the next 31.
International Mega Projects Quiz
00:09:38
Speaker
Add to the next 30.
00:09:41
Speaker
right awesome thank you i'm conscious of time there is a fire alarm that's going to go off a fire alarm test in my office in 14 minutes so we're going to rattle through this next section as a christmas present to you jason i've got a list of i guess international mega projects which you may or may not have heard of
00:09:59
Speaker
Um, I wouldn't say it's a definitive list of the biggest projects. It's, it's slightly random. Um, but I'm going to describe you a few details and you've got to try and guess maybe the project name, maybe where it is and try and get some sort of detail that's related to it. Relatively quick fire. Okay. Yeah. Easy. First up is a gimmick. It's quite, it's quite interesting.
00:10:21
Speaker
It just used to be a mega project, is it still? Ooh, I won't say that. Yeah, this first one would be quite embarrassing if you don't get like really embarrassing. So it's 35, $40 billion. It's a Metro line being built in Melbourne and is currently under construction.
00:10:39
Speaker
uh is it metro that's probably the wrong word it's uh yeah i'm very good to say melbourne metro but it's probably not that it's probably suburban rally correct well done right next up um this is a project which is going to produce chips no computer chips
00:10:57
Speaker
I've got some very random stats, which you can decide whether it's sort of real, not real, what it could be related to, what it is. It's going to produce 10 million of these chips every day. The ones that are in short supply at the moment. I know nothing about production rates of chips.
00:11:16
Speaker
When I got given this, I had no idea what was normal and what was like, that could be small in terms of like certain countries. The facilities are known to be- It's a lot. It's even a lot of potato chips. So like, so they can computer chips and be- It sounds like an absolute massive amount. Sorry, go ahead. This is going to be quite a difficult one in the grand scheme of this list. $30 billion. It's underway at the moment.
00:11:45
Speaker
It is effectively like massive warehouses filled with kit to produce these chips. And I guess the hint will be, if you can try and guess where it might be, is I assume it's to lessen the reliance on China, which seems to be the... Well, I was going to guess either China or some other US somewhere. Is it part of that big investment with the chip drive with Intel thing? I don't believe it is, but you're right with America.
00:12:09
Speaker
I think it's pretty hard for it to get more detail than that. But yeah, Texas. That was a bit of a wild card. It's called the Sherman Semiconductor Chip Manufacturing Complex. I'd never heard of it before I saw this. There's 30 billion, quite substantial. They're like four megafactories. The next one. This is a part of a vision for a country. It's comprises of various cities on the coast. Correct. So yeah, we've got the line, we've got Neon Bay, obviously they're going
00:12:40
Speaker
You previously sort of mentioned your skepticism on whether it will be finished. The ski resort, hotels like the Hilton are already building their hotels there, so some would say that's a rare indication that it will happen. Do you want me to restate my skepticism?
00:12:56
Speaker
um yeah i don't have any doubt that it will i i like to yeah i guess i don't have any doubt it will be built um a little i am in total awe a slight disbelief that it will be built completely in the especially within the time frame that is uh posited even just the line like 130 40 kilometers or whatever it is i just i just can't whatever it is it's just
00:13:27
Speaker
And if you remember on the line, was it three or four suspended football stadiums? Yeah. They've now won the 2032 World Cup. Well they wouldn't win that long because they've got a lot of football stadiums there.
00:13:43
Speaker
Right, we'll go a little bit more niche now. The next project is a 2,100 kilometer long high speed train system. It's 250 billion dollars. It was meant to open this year and it hasn't started yet.
00:14:00
Speaker
It spans six countries. It's either like in the Gulf or is it one of the ones that China is building like across Belt and Road? Yeah, it's the Gulf Railway. I don't know what it was called, but it's the one that goes like UAE. Yeah, it's called the Gulf Railway. It's like Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi. It's pretty much just flight or drive at the moment.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's a very fantastic question that you probably, you may not know the answer to. Who's paying for it? It's contribution from each country. And it looks like the contributions are based kind of on how big their section are. So think of it as they're paying through their intersections, but it's...
00:14:47
Speaker
Gotcha. Cool. So yeah, no, the original opening date was this year and it hasn't started. So I'm it's in the questionable back yet. Yeah. And yeah, so that I read, read back to my skepticism. Ari Liam dates.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it'll connect to the on there'll be a train station for that. We'll see. Next up, this is another train line. It's $100 billion, 1500 kilometers long.
00:15:21
Speaker
connecting two of the most densely populated cities in the world. It's probably China. 100 million. It's not a bad bet based on the hint, but it's not China. It's not China. I'll give you a second guess. It's in progress. Two of the most. Now I'm going to pass. It's a passing option. This is a made up game. It's also we can pass. Pass. Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
This is the Delhi to Mumbai industrial corridor project so Connecting to the two cities, but they will say Basically plotting some new cities on the line between the two. So it's pretty mega. It's underway now It's underway at the moment Yeah, I honestly didn't know of that either and that's a serious amount of spend that is Crazy. Yeah
00:16:11
Speaker
next up we have an airport your hint is it's already doing 80 or 90 million passengers a year they're doing a 30 billion expansion do i give you another hint no is it uh like one of the ones that are like the hub for the top five hub airports in the world yeah yeah so either like in Asia or Middle East
00:16:35
Speaker
airport that's that's all my guess but i'm trying to narrow down yeah yeah yeah all right yeah i'll confirm that that's correct hey yeah yeah so they're doing a serious um expansion job they want to increase the 80 million to 250 million passages per year holy smokes that's that is big
00:16:55
Speaker
That's a lot of, that's a lot of aeroplanes. Yeah. Big time. So, um, do you reckon they're backing in the fact that like some of this Saudi won't pull off because part of the Saudi like vision is it's within seven hours of like 70% of the world. Didn't I see recently that they did a deal, the deal for like Qatar Airways to fly into Neil.
Qatar's Airport Expansion Discussion
00:17:17
Speaker
So they're definitely competing for like that hub traffic. So yeah, there's definitely. Yeah, it'd be really annoying if everyone flying to Saudi had to go buy a guitar.
00:17:25
Speaker
and then get back on the plane for like 45 minutes or an hour, whatever it is. Especially if you're coming from the UK. Anyway, 100%. Right, last project.
China's Water Transfer Project Insight
00:17:38
Speaker
This is 62 billion starting contract price.
00:17:42
Speaker
uh to build three canals these canals are to divert water from the coast inland it started in 2003 by 2014 they spent 79 billion 18 more billion than the original price and they're forecasting completion in 2050 is this in china this isn't china yeah is it like to divert
00:18:08
Speaker
is it three gorgeous dam or another like one or something it's something like that no it's called the south north water transfer project uh it's a different day uh okay there is a section in like in china that it's like super that's super dry i think i'm remembering back to some documentary i've watched some crazy stuff
00:18:28
Speaker
it was 62 billion but by 2014 they spent 79 billion and at that point they had 36 years left so 36 years left
00:18:38
Speaker
It will finish in 2050, is current estimate. And like they- One person with a shovel, you know when you go to the beach and you make like a little water coming around? Yeah, yeah, you put the water in. Yeah, yeah. And then the moat around your castle. One person just like shoveling with this like wall of water coming behind them. Yeah. There's a pretty bad press around it. They had to resettle 330,000 people to build the canal. That's taken a background of my jakelet.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, the environmental damage was bad. They're then saying that it's so big that they're worried about water evaporation.
00:19:15
Speaker
they've got like all of these shallow canals and water would evaporate quicker and that would actually have an effect on like the global environment so it's um yeah it's pretty bad it's crazy it's happening right some guys actually that was weirdly impressive that you guessed i think i wasn't keeping count but like five i was to be honest i was just guessing that the sort of general vicinity of the project and
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, if it's 100 billion or more, you just say Saudi, right? And then it's normally right. And if it's not Saudi, it's China. Yeah, yeah. Nice one, right. Thank you very much, Jason. Thank you, Ollie. Thank you, everyone. So we'll catch you all in the new year. So thank you very much for listening.