📷 Day 26: Bridge

A wooden walkway leads through a tree-lined area under a graffiti-covered stone bridge.

I was honoured by Tamer El-Diraby’s invitation to talk with his civil engineering graduate students about Project Delivery Systems and Finance.

Other than introducing the basic concepts and approaches, I also wanted to convince the engineers that the choice of delivery model will affect the project’s design and construction and, therefore, engineers need to both understand delivery models and participate in their evaluation. Plus, there is no _correct _ delivery model, rather there are trade offs that need to be evaluated in choosing the right model for each component of a project.

Download: progressive-delivery-models-in-public-transit-infrastructure.pdf

📷 Day 25: Decay

A large, weathered tree stump surrounded by lush green foliage in a wooded area.

📷 Day 24: Bloom

Vibrant purple morning glories with green leaves climb along a wooden fence.

Budweiser Stage. 📍

🎶 Fantastic Mumford and Sons concert! They really know how to put on a show.

A large crowd is attending an outdoor concert, with the stage featuring a performer and two screens displaying the event.

📷 Day 23: Fracture

A crack in a brick wall is filled and covered with grey patchwork material.

🎵 Songs of a Lost World by The Cure was a favourite album of 2024. The new Mixes Of A Lost World is a musical exploration of that album through multiple remixes.

1990’s Mixed Up was also a great remix album from The Cure. Robert Smith has a knack for these collaborations.

Mixes Of A Lost World - The Cure poster

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📷 Day 20: Gather

A group of people are gathered on a gravel area near parked cars, surrounded by a forest.

National Mall and Memorial Parks. 📍

📷 Day 19: Equal

A statue of Thomas Jefferson stands prominently inside a large, domed rotunda with inscriptions on the walls.

📷 Day 18: Texture

A close-up of a bicycle handlebar with a textured grip and a control panel displaying colorful buttons.

📷 Day 17: Warmth

A golden retriever is lounging on the grass surrounded by colorful outdoor chairs in a backyard setting.

📷 Day 15: Tie

A person is wearing brown leather sneakers with untied laces on a wooden floor.

Woodbine Beach Park. 📍

Ribfest for Father’s Day

People are gathered in a grassy area with food stalls in the background displaying barbecue menus and signage.

📷 Day 14: Twilight

A calm lake at sunset, with a tree and grassy area in the foreground.

🚴 Fun ride today with a great group and fantastic weather

A recorded outdoor cycling route covers 109.19 km with an elevation gain of 687 meters, mapped around Toronto and nearby areas.

📷 Day 13: Pathway

A dirt path flanked by leafless trees and a bench runs through a serene, natural setting under a blue sky.

“The Problem Factory”- Preemptive risk aversion in infrastructure planning and the role of professional services is an interesting analysis of why infrastructure projects are so expensive in the “anglosphere”.

This kind of risk – very high stakes and very low visibility of probabilities – is extremely difficult to manage and consequently extremely unattractive to private-sector investors and developers. It creates a tendency to attempt to “bulletproof” infrastructure projects. Rather than an expected net present value approach, the costing of large infrastructure projects is a process of casting the net wide to define a “risk surface” covering all possible issues which might present a probability above some threshold value of derailing the project, then spending as much as needed to mitigate those risks below the threshold value. And since almost any possible objection or issue could (with unknown and unknowable probability) be the reason for an entire project to fail, almost no potential issue is ignorable, and any expense spent on mitigating the risks is likely to look like value for money.

A key point is summarized by the phrase “the cost factory is owned by the benefit factory”. An entire industry is deeply embedded in these projects to propose, evaluate, and document potential issues, all with an incentive to put significant effort into the task.

At no stage in this process are any of the major actors likely to feel that they have a genuine choice as to what to do. Lawyers cannot ignore new precedents; they need to inform their clients and potential clients. The planning authorities are institutionally averse to losing judicial reviews, and so they consider all the objections placed before them. Objectors to planning, in an adversarial system, are unlikely to leave any potential weapons on the ground. Developers need to maximise the chances of carrying through a viable infrastructure project. The professional and scientific services firms are literally doing their job. So, the risk surface expands. Apart from the objectors, everyone involved is trying to help, but the final, systemic and predictable consequence of their actions is the gradual sclerosis of the system.

The article goes on to contrast this approach with the more statist one used in many other countries and incorporates this into some lessons and potential mitigations that would fit into the anglosphere model.

📷 Day 12: Hidden

A broken safe with an open door out in the woods

📷 Day 11: Brick

A close-up view of a brick wall showcases the texture and detail of the bricks and mortar.

These days, I’m mostly interested in the new WatchOS features, rather than anything else. The addition of Apple Notes on the watch is significant for me. One less reason to carry my phone around.