Gigaprojects: Delivering Strategic, Massive Transformation

Gigaprojects aren’t hard to spot: deep complexity, massive stakeholder groups, wildly ambitious scopes and a major boost to national economies. We discuss two gigaprojects with:

Ryan Banas, project director for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion project and VP at HNTB in Norfolk, Virginia, USA; and Chris Hall, district engineer at the Virginia Department of Transportation in Hampton, Virginia, USA: Banas and Hall discuss how their teams prepared for the years-long bridge and tunnel project, how they keep teams aligned across multiple hand-offs, and the clever ways they engage stakeholders—including community members affected by construction.

Mohammed Almutlaq, project management office VP at the Royal Commission for AlUla in Riyadh: Almutlaq shares how teams are turning the historical site of AlUla into an archaeological tourism destination. He discusses how the PMO keeps teams across portfolios aligned to a singular strategy, ways teams best communicate and keep track of progress across projects, and builds flexibility into projects through solid change management practices.

Key themes

01:42 Managing a multibillion-dollar infrastructure overhaul in Virginia

04:42 How teams collaborate to tackle years-long projects

07:41 Good practices for hand-offs across the project life cycle

10:12 Keeping the community informed—and building buy-in for the long haul

15:44 Transforming the ancient city of AlUla into a tourism hub

18:18 How a PMO keeps multiple teams aligned to one strategic vision

21:19 Building adaptability into projects with change management

25:06 Top challenges: continuous value delivery and retaining the right talent over long timelines