The Most Expensive Construction Projects in Human History

Location: Johor, Malaysia
Total Cost: $4 Billion*
Year Finished: 2035

In 2006, a twenty-year project was proposed that would see an ecologically sensitive, environmentally friendly city built on the four man-made islands, next to Johor. Through a joint venture, Chinese real estate developer Country Garden (60% stake) and Johor People’s Infrastructure Group (40% stake), split the bill and undertook the massive project which was to be bigger than two and a half thousand football fields when completed. While still in the developmental stage, the goal by the end of 2019 was to have around seven hundred thousand housing units sold in the city. The actual number fell a long way from the target and was a lot closer to fifteen thousand units.

Forest City, Malaysia @indiaholiday007 / Pinterest.com

In 2014, Malaysia began the reclamation of land in the area that was to be Forest City but did so without the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment, which was legally required. According to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea between Malaysia and Singapore in 2005, Malaysia was to inform Singapore of the upcoming reclamation. Due to the failure on their part to do so, and the fact that part of the land that Forest City was to be built on was in an environmentally sensitive area, the planned size of the city was cut down to one-quarter of the initial size. After multiple delays it is now projected that Forest City will be ready no sooner than the middle of the next decade.

Location: Earth’s Orbit
Total Cost: $150 Billion+*
Year Finished: 2009

With the ‘Space Race’ long past, nations from all over the world came together in 1998 in order to accomplish one of the biggest and most difficult endeavors in space architecture. With a length of over three hundred feet and a weighing in at more than nine hundred thousand pounds, it took more than thirty missions and over $150 billion to complete initial construction. It is five times larger than America’s Skylab and four times larger than Mir, the Russian space station.

International Space Station ©Andrey Armyagov / Shutterstock.com

On November 2nd, 2000, a mixed crew of Russians and Americans became the first people to take up residency on the ISS, which they did for several months. The International Space Station has been occupied constantly for more than twenty years and has been host to 242 individuals from 19 different countries over the years. The ISS moves so fast in Earth’s orbit, that it circles the Earth 15.54 times every day at a speed of 4.76 miles per second. Time will tell if the International Space Station will continue its orbit into the next decade, as the funding for the station only takes it to 2025 and it may ultimately be de-orbited in 2030.

Location: Brazil & Paraguay
Total Cost: $19.6 Billion*
Year Finished: 1984

Almost eighteen years after its conception, and more than $19 billion, the Itaipu Dam opened and gained recognition as the largest Hydroelectric Dam in the world. That was a distinction, which it held until 2006, when, thanks to the Three Gorges Dam in China, it had to renounce.

Itaipu Dam ©Maila Facchini / Shutterstock.com

Funded by the governments of Brazil and Paraguay, more than fifty million tons of earth and rock had to be displaced in order to complete the 490-foot wide, 1.3-mile long channel, which would be used to divert the water.

Running along the border between Paraguay and Brazil and standing almost as tall as a sixty-five-story building, the dam supplies Paraguay with more than three-quarters of all its energy needs. In 1994, the Itaipu Dam was classified, by the American Society of Civil Engineers, as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. 

Location: USA
Total Cost: $5 Billion*
Year Finished: 2017

The late Steve Jobs was a man with extraordinary insight. It was not the typical office space that he saw when he envisioned the future of the Apple campus. With everything from the type of trees on the campus to the wood used for construction, Jobs had everything planned out before he passed away.

Apple Park ©Droneandy / Shutterstock.com

The land that the campus, at 1 Apple Park Way was built on, accounted for an estimated $160 million of what the project ultimately cost and is the size of forty regulation football fields (eighty percent of which is green property. Trees, parks, etc).

One of Jobs’ biggest hopes for the complex was realized when it was announced that Apple Park would run off of 100% renewable energy.

Location: Japan
Total Cost: $24 Billion*
Year Finished: 1994

As one of the more ambitious structures in the modern age, the construction of a man-made island in Osaka Bay, for Japan’s Kansai International Airport, began in 1987. A million sand drains were used in order to solidify the clay in the bay. Orix and Vinci SA, as the only bidder for the airport’s building contract, constructed a 2.5 mile long and 1.6-mile-wide island airport that is now frequented by more than 25 million passengers a year.

Kansai International Airport @CivilEngineeringDaily / Facebook.com

Due mostly to the sliding joints that were part of its earthquake engineering, the Kansai International Airport came out of the disaster that was the 1995 Kobe earthquake unscathed, but it is not invincible.

It was estimated that the airport was going to sink nineteen feet but in reality, by 1999, the airport island had already sunk an astonishing twenty-seven feet. Since then, almost eight inches of pavement have been added to the runways and taxiways.

Location: USA
Total Cost: $3.9 Billion*
Year Finished: 2010

In 2010, developer, 3700 Associates’, $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, opened its doors for the inaugural time. It sports two towers, each measuring 603 feet tall, consisting of more than three thousand hotel rooms, a 3200 seat theatre, a casino, and a convention center, all within the complex.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas ©Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

In 2008, the Deutsche bank purchased the project from 3700 Associates for $1 billion, and in 2014, a year after it was rated ‘The World’s Best Hotel’, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas was sold again to Blackstone Group for $1.73 billion.

Over the years, ‘The Cosmo’, has even left its footprint on popular culture by hosting the fourth season of Top Chef Master, as well as being the setting for, The Killers’ music video ‘Shot at the Night’. 

Location: South Korea
Total Cost: $3.4 Billion*
Year Finished: 2016

Measuring in at, 1823 feet tall, the 123-story Lotte World Tower, is the tallest building that can be found on the Korean Peninsula and also happens to be the fifth tallest building in the world.

Lotte World Tower ©catcher_3.3 / Shutterstock.com

The American architecture firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox, was hired by The Lotte Group in order to design a non-eyesore, structure that would rise above the clouds on an overcast day while still retaining its magnificence.

Following thirteen years of planning and a further seven years of construction, the tower was finally ready to open to the public. The Lotte World Tower’s observatory was opened in 2017, and can host around 50 million tourists a year.

Location: USA
Total Cost: $3.9 Billion*
Year Finished: 2014

Thirteen years after the most deadly foreign attack on American soil, in modern history, the new One World Trade Centre was completed. Principally owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the center cost just shy of $4 billion.

One World Trade Center ©haveseen / Shutterstock.com

It features a three-floor observation deck, with the viewing area coming on the 100^th floor. The grandiose nature of the building is partially in order to demonstrate American resilience, and honor the brave men and women who lost their lives on that fateful day.

The new trade center can be found on the grounds next to the Ground Zero Memorial and is, as of now, the tallest building in New York. The final vision for the project includes five buildings, including a National September 11th Memorial and Museum. 

Location: USA
Total Cost: $24.3 Billion*
Year Finished: 2007

More than twenty years after planning began in 1982, the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (or Big Dig), in Boston, finally became operational. Much to the relief of Bostonians, in 2007, the project was completed.

Big Dig @engenharia360 / Pinterest.com

The new highway system was designed in order to divert traffic away from the more congested areas of the city through a series of highways, tunnels, and bridges. In 2001, because of the failure by subcontractors to remove gravel and other debris before pouring concrete, thousands of leaks were discovered by the Turnpike Authority.

The north tunnel of Interstate 93 sprung a major leak in the latter parts of the summer of 2004, and the tunnel was forced to close for repairs. After $24.3 billion, countless incidents, and twenty-six years of construction, the nightmare that was ‘The Big Dig’, was finally over.

Location: Singapore
Total Cost: $6.88 Billion*
Year Finished: 2010

In 2006, the Las Vegas Sands Corporation won the contract that allowed them to build the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It is made up of three towers, which are connected by the 3900-person capacity Skypark, and cost just short of $7 billion to complete.

Marina Bay Sands ©Vichy Deal / Shutterstock.com

Two years after its initial completion date, ‘The Sands’ had its official grand opening in mid-February of 2011. The Marina Bay Sands has something for everyone including, a casino, a skating rink, and a shopping center.

It also has a theatre with more than two thousand seats that was host to such shows as, The Lion King and Wicked. The complex’s “piece de resistance”, however, is the 478-foot long infinity pool located on the roof.

Location: Saudi Arabia
Total Cost: $100+ Billion*
Year Finished: Ongoing

At an astronomical $100 billion, and counting, renovations of Mecca’s Great Mosque have been taking place, in one way or another, for more than two thousand years. The Great Mosque’s indoor and outdoor praying spaces cover a massive ninety-nine acres and can hold up to four million worshippers at a time.

The Great Mosque of Mecca ©Mohamed Reedi / Shutterstock.com

As one of the holiest sites in the entire world, it’s no wonder that an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia would invest billions in keeping it as beautiful and accessible as possible. The first major renovations of The Great Mosque of Mecca, took place way back in the year 692, and have been ongoing since.

Back then, they replaced the old wooden columns with marble, and extensions were added to the wings of the prayer hall. In 2015, five more mega projects were launched by King Salman as part of his predecessor, King Abdullah’s, original 2008 expansion project.

Location: Libya
Total Cost: $36 Billion+*
Year Finished: Not Yet Completed

What began as ‘pipedream’ by deceased Libyan Leader, Muammar Gaddafi in the 1980s, has now grown into the world’s largest irrigation system. With two of its five phases complete, the Great Man-Made River transports more than 6.5 million cubic meters of freshwater, from the desert to the coastal cities of Libya, daily.

Great Man-Made River @_kazumasa_ / Twitter.com

The second phase incorporated more than 1700 miles of pipe networks, making it one of the biggest public works projects in human history. Nevertheless, the completion date of this massive project has not been established quite yet.

During the 2011 Syrian civil war, air attacks damaged one of the two pipe production plants, used for the construction of the system, thus causing significant delays in construction. The estimated cost of the final project is somewhere north of $36 billion.

Location: China
Total Cost: $4 Billion*
Year Finished: 2016

The Wynn Palace Resort in Macau has two hotel towers that house over seventeen hundred rooms, a casino, and thirteen different restaurants. After more than two years of construction, the ribbon for the $4 billion resort and casino was cut later than hoped.

Wynn Palace ©By ben_p / Shutterstock.com

There were many mishaps and delays during construction, which pushed back the completion date to later than expected. After all, massive projects like this almost never happen without coming across hiccups along the way.

The three-month delay in opening the resort cost Leighton Holdings (now Cimic Group) $38 million, upon having to forfeit their deadline-based bonus. Leighton Holdings may have missed out on their bonus, but many others did not, as shares of Wynn Resorts hit a 52-week high following the Wynn Palace’s opening in Macau. 

Location: Romania
Total Cost: $3.65*
Year Finished: 1997

In 1997, after requiring thirteen years and the input of approximately seven hundred architects to complete (as we know it), the Romanian, Palace of the Parliament, cost $3.65 billion to build.

Palace of the Parliament ©Balate Dorin / Shutterstock.com

It has a larger volume than the Great Pyramid of Giza and is the heaviest building in the world, weighing in at a monstrous 9.04 billion pounds. To date, the palace still has not been completed in its entirety, as only four hundred, of its eleven hundred rooms, have been finished.

It does come fully equipped with a panic room though. The deepest of its eight underground levels is a nuclear bunker that has over twenty kilometers of underground tunnels connecting it to the main institutions of the state.