Top Ten Construction Projects in World

The Construction industry is something that never stops. To achieve more living space, better infrastructure, production facility, and development, we need to be building some stuff all the time, expanding our concrete footprint everywhere. These construction projects can range from small residential houses to giant skyscrapers or miles-long bridges.

Today, we will discuss ten of these construction projects in the world, which we consider as the largest of them all. These projects not only take up huge ground area, but they are also gigantic in scope, manpower and resource usage, economic and geographical impact, and they take quite some time to build. Some of these require very different kinds of technologies to construct, as you will see below. Our list of the top ten largest construction projects includes infrastructures, industrial, and entertainment complexes.

Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai

Spreading over 21 square miles, the Al Maktoum International Airport is the largest airport under construction ever. While the construction has been scheduled to finish in 2018, it has been delayed indefinitely. The monstrous project will eat up $32 billion in the second phase only. When finished, the airport will be able to accommodate the movements and servicing of two hundred wide-body airplanes and other assorted aircraft at one time.

Jubail II, Saudi Arabia

One of the longest-running industrial projects in the world is Jubail II, running for over 22 years. It is an industrial city, comprising of over a hundred industrial plants, a desalination plant sized eight hundred thousand cubic meters, and an oil refinery capable of producing 350,000 barrels of oil every day. The grounds of this project will be crisscrossed with miles and miles of highways, railroads, and streets to connect it with the rest of the country. It has started the second phase of expansion worth $11 billion back in 2014 is scheduled to continue building till 2024.

Dubailand, Dubai

Dubailand is a huge theme park complex from Universal Studios, capable of fitting three standard Disney worlds inside it. The park is over 278 square kilometers in size, it is projected to cost $64 billion. It is planned to have a theme park, a sports venue, an eco-tourism park, a health facility, science attractions, and hotels. The hotel will include 6500 rooms and a mall larger than 10 million square feet, in completion being the largest of them all. The whole project is scheduled to see completion in 2025.

International Space Station

We are including this in our world's-top-ten-constructions list although this construction project is not on the world at all, rather, circling Earth every 92 minutes in space in a stable orbit. Arguably the most difficult to construct, a consortium of 15 countries and 5 space agencies are engaged to build this project currently. Previously thought to be finished within $60 billion, the cost of the project has spiraled out of control exceeding a trillion dollars. However, when completed, it is supposed to become a self-sufficient habitat for a million humans.

South-North Water Transfer Project, China

The plan for this project is to dig three 600-mile long canals from the southern rivers to the northern region of China which houses about 50% of its population but has access to only 20% of water. With a 48-year long construction schedule, it will be able to supply 44.8 billion cubic liters of water each year to the thirsty people up north.

London Crossrail Project, England

London was the first city in the world to have an underground train system, way back in 1855. Ever since then, the "tube rail" has continued to grow ever since, and in that manner, it can be considered the oldest ongoing construction project ever. For now, it is designed to spread along 26 miles more, and connect 40 more stations. The estimate for this expansion is 23 billion USD. The project will be completed in multiple phases, as usual with metro rail projects. The first line named the Elizabeth line has opened up this year, to be followed by other lines.

California High-Speed Railway, USA

It began back in 2015. The 14-year long plan to construct a connectivity solution for the 8 largest cities in the state is divided into two phases. The first phase is to construct the rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and the second phase will connect San Francisco to San Diego. The high-speed trains that run on this line are supposed to reach up to 200 miles per hour and powered by 100% renewable electricity

Chuo Shinkansen, Japan

Japan has always been the place for technology and this is no exception so far. This ultra-speed maglev line will see trains blazing by at five hundred kilometers per hour, transporting passengers 286 kilometers between Tokyo and Nagoya in forty minutes only. The second phase of this line will enable the trains to reach as far as Osaka. The first phase is scheduled to open in 2027. The construction project will see extensive tunneling work since 86 percent of it will remain underground.

Beijing Airport, China

While the first project in Dubai on our list is the biggest airport, this mega-airport project, when complete, will claim that distinction. The Beijing Airport's first expansion was finished back in 2008, and the later expansion is planned to be finished by 2025. Multitudes of sustainable design concepts and futuristic construction scope were part of the terminals designed by the famous architect Zaha Hadid.

GMR Project, Libya

Libya doesn't come into progressive news much often, but the Great Man-Made River project is something worth awe and respect. Maintaining the title of the largest irrigation project in the world, the artificial river will draw water from the underground Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System and is projected to irrigate over 350,000 acres of arable land and provide drinking water to most of Libya's urbanized population. The GMR project had started back in 1985 and it should get done by 2030.

There are giant residential projects available as well, but since they are nowhere as close to these projects, we have omitted the residential type of projects from this list. We will get to the largest residential projects in the world another day.