Projects to Watch: A Man, A Plan, A Canal

On a recent trip to the San Diego airport, the shuttle made a brief diversion to a downtown hotel to pick up guests from a cruise ship that had just been through the Panama Canal. Now each of my online students needs to do a brief essay on an historical project, and this is a popular one, given that one project team succeeded where another had failed. So it peaked my interest to hear something about the current state of the canal.

What many do not realize is that the current state of shipbuilding is constrained by the canal. Most ships do not exceed the size of a vessel that can pass through the locks. This size has actually been assigned a name, Panamax. The super tanker, along with our Nimitz class aircraft carriers, exceed this size and must therefore pass Cape Horn at the Southern tip of South America if they want to pass from Atlantic to Pacific. This is a far longer (around 8,000 nautical miles longer) trip than the roughly 15-16 hours it takes to pass through the canal end-to-end.

Talk of expanding the canals had been around for year, however these recent cruise ship guests indicated the construction was now actually visible to those on deck. The project was originally proposed by former Panama President Martin Torrijos in 2006. The official project start date is recorded as September 3, 2007.

I also had not given much thought as to how the canals generated income -- the early history doesn't speak to that. Small ocean-able private ships (e.g. around 50 foot) may pay a little more than $1,000 US, while cruise ships may pay $100,000+. These tolls and increased by approximately 3.5% per year and must be pre-paid. The cruise ship guests speculated that the large number of ships moored off the canal entrance may have been due to the wait for the fee payment to clear. Another limiting factor is how many ships can pass per day due to the operation of the locks. Most statistics on the canal are given in tons of cargo, but estimates are that 40-50 can pass through in a day.

The final days of the project are expected to be in 2015. The result will be new wealth for Panamanians. The construction jobs, post construction jobs, and tolls are expected to reduce poverty in this small country by 30%. Critics pointed out that the canal plans did not include the social planning necessary, however this planning is now underway as well. Only time will tell if this project succeeds or fails, but the early indicators are positive -- this is a project to watch.

Projects to Watch: Steel Grass Farm

It been 10 years since I last visited Kauai, but I recently had an opportunity to spend two days in Honolulu and a week in Princeville. In many ways, nothing changed in the last 10 years. Hanalei Bay still has its one lane bridge which blocks construction equipment from entering, along with progress. Except for more resorts at Poi'pu and a small road widening project between the Lihue Airport and Kapa'a, everything still had a very familiar look.

Coming out of the airport, I passed by the racks with tourist attractions and one word caught my eye -- Chocolate Farm! This was something new! A follow up call led me to a brief phone conversation with Tony Lydgate, the owner of Steel Grass Farm in Kapa'a. I arranged to take a three hour "branch to bar" tour of the farm a couple days later. Little did I know this would become a highlight of my trip, not to mention a "diamond in the rough" project waiting to happen.

One of the issues of isolated island life is all the food and goods have to be imported, even though a large percentage of the island is devoted to agriculture. Another issue is employment -- many kama'aina (locals) hold two or even three jobs to support their families. Tony has a vision to change this.

Chocolate (cacao) trees are known as 20-60 trees. They grow in climates within 20 degrees of the equator and where the temperature doesn't go below 60-degrees F. This makes Hawaii the only location in the US which can support large scale chocolate tree growing. Tony and his family envision a day when Kauai will sustain a chocolate cooperative.

As he plants more trees, Tony encourages others to plant on their properties. Each tree only produces a small number of pods (perhaps 30 or 40 for more mature trees), each holding perhaps 3-4 dozen beans which when peeled, become the chocolate nibs. It takes about 500 beans to make one pound of chocolate (all hand processed). A chocolate cooperative would provide sustainable agriculture and renewable revenue for the tree growers. Rather than produce the actual chocolate, the cooperative might go so far as to prepare the nibs and sell them to off island companies to manufacture into chocolate.

The last hour of the tour is devoted to a blind chocolate tasting. Our guides also provided us with some politically correct places from which to buy chocolate. These countries provide a living and fair wage for the workers who process the beans. Rather than by a regular chocolate bar which might contain chocolate from many sources, we were advised to look for single source products such as might come from South or Central America. The most expensive chocolate we tasted was a Dole® Waialua Estate™ Cacao, a rare bean which grows in the volcanic soil of the north shore of Oahu.

As sustainable and cooperative agriculture grows on Kauai, I see many possible projects which will require careful management to optimize business results. Check out Steel Grass Farm on the web for further information. I'll probably be banned from these future projects, however, as its likely I'd devour all the product!

Projects to Watch: The Greening of Chicago

Perhaps President Obama's association with the city has something to do with it -- suddenly the mention of "green" projects also brings up Chicago. The April 2009 PM Network magazine has a full page "side bar" highlighting the city accomplishments, including:

- tax breaks and grants for the greening of building roof tops
- The Chicago Climate Action Plan proposal to reduce greenhouse gases to 25% below 1990 levels
- Millenium Park, possibly the world's largest green roof
- additional green construction projects
- redevelopment of a former steel plant site into a park

Perhaps coincidentally, the May 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine also includes an article entitled "Up on the Roof" and the first featured photo is the green roof top of Chicago's City Hall and Chicago is declared North America's leading green roof city.

With increasing evidence of global warning and other environmental concerns, the green projects of Chicago are worth both watching and reproducing.

Projects to Watch: Spring Garden Alive!

What do you get when you mix innovation, mentoring, education, and project management? Spring Garden Alive!, a product of PMI Founder Jim Snyder, PMI Delaware Valley Chapter, the School District of Phildelphia, Devry University, and the PMI Education Foundation. Here's what I learned about this project while in Denver for the 2008 North American Leadership Meeting.

Using Perkins Title IV funds targeted at improving the life skills of High School students, the project teaches Project Management Skills within the Phildelphia school system. Students undergo a rigorous application (based on academic achievement and attendance) and testing process and have dual enrollment in high school and college (Devry University). The Delaware Valley Chapter of PMI supplies the mentors for the program which includes as instructional topics:

• Charter and Scope
  
• WBS
  
• Network Diagrams
  
• Budget
  
• Resources
  
• Project Control Plan
  
• Risk Plan
  
• Procurement Plan
  

The project students work on centers around developing a vacant lot near the school district headquarters. A number of students have already "graduated" from the program which has expanded to two Project Management classes. In addition to gaining 21st Century Life Skills, students completing the program are encouraged to further their education with the college credits earned by the course.

The PMI Education Foundation is actively seeking sponsors, mentors, instructions, and more to advance the program, perhaps taking it to other school districts based on the current levels of success, making it a "project to watch".

Projects to Watch: "An Ambitious Project"

About 2 hours ago the Reuters service carried news of the malfunction of the world's largest physics experiment, the $9B Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located beneath a CERN research center near the Swiss-French border. A 30-ton transformer designed to cool the magnets to -456.3F malfunctioned. The resulting helium leak into the 17 mile tunnel housing the equipment resulted in a shut down and its estimated to take two months to fix.

With this largest, most complex machine ever built, scientists are hoping to simulate the "Big Bang" conditions theorized to have taken place at the birth of the universe. Some of the things they will be looking for include:

- dark matter
- Higgs bosons (believed to give mass to all other particles)
- other exotic particles, possibly newly discovered

While critics are predicting the end of the world in small black holes which could be opened by the machine, the experts apparently feel its close to 100% safe.

Projects to Watch: Punta Colonet

The story didn't seem to get a lot of press or discussion, but a couple of people tipped me off and a search turned up an article from July 25th in SignOnSanDiego. Mexico's federal government is planning a massive port project approximately 150 miles south of San Diego (this is south of Ensenada). The government is expected to publish bid specifications by the end of September for a container port and rail project designed to route Asian cargo through Mexico to the US.

Colonet is a small coastal community. When the project is completed, the port could rival Long Beach and Los Angeles, both of which are growing overburdened from congestion created by increased Pacific trade.

Several groups have expressed an interest in the project which would include a $4.5B private investment. Any number of "spin off" projects might be needed, including road improvements, a desalination plant for water, an improved border crossing, and rail line improvements.

At this point, little else is known about the project and the improved border crossing site has not been identified. The Baja California government is working on guidelines for urban development, where the population could grow to 200,000. This is a project to watch to see how plans unfold once the bid information is released later this year.

Projects to Watch: Library of Congress Flickr Pilot

As the saying goes, many hands make the work light. The advent of Web 2.0 applications has facilitated collaboration on many levels, and the Library of Congress has decided to jump in. They have millions of pictures in their collections, and many of them have incomplete information -- they are missing names of subjects, locations, and photographers. They have made a total of 3,000 photos from two of the more popular collections available on a flickr page where the viewing community is invited to tag them with the missing information.

Harnessing the power of the Internet community to build the human knowledge base is an interesting social experiment which could yield many interesting new applications. To stay in tune with this important project to watch, visit the Library of Congress blog.

Projects to Watch: Burj Dubai

For decades, the Sears Tower in Chicago was not only the tallest building in the US, having surpassed the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, but was also the tallest in the world. In 1998, it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Post 9/11, there has been a renewed interest in tall buildings. Taipei 101 took the new record in 2004, just short of 1,700 feet. The Freedom Tower under design for New York City is supposed to exceed that at 1,776 feet, chosen for its symbolism for American independence.

Now, a new tower, Burj Dubai is under construction (scheduled for late 2008 opening) and has already surpassed Taipei 101 by a significant amount. At the center of a huge development with tens of thousands of residences and malls, the Burj Dubai will stand an impressive 2,111 feet or about the size of one and a half Sears Towers. The building is expected to hold another record as well -- world's fastest elevators. Travelling at speeds of up to 40 mph, visitors will be able to rapidly ascend the 160+ floors to visit a roof top observation deck.

For more information about this impressive project, please visit:

SkyScraper Page
Burj Dubai

A photo is also available in the April 2008 issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

Projects to Watch: New Human Genome Project

The original human genome project was incredible. I've had several students profile it as part of a class assignment. It launched as an international effort in 1988 and in 13 years, the entire human genome and 25,000 genes were identified and mapped. The original project was to last 15 years and cost the US alone $3B. The project finished two years early and saved $.3B. The project was funded by the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.

According to web site Insider Medicine (http://www.insidermedicine.ca), "Researchers from three continents have come together to map the genomes of 1,000 people in a project that they hope will help determine the genetic roots for disease. Researchers have previously catalogued dozens of specific regions of variation in the human genome and linked them with common diseases, but these DNA maps are not highly detailed. This new project promises to examine the human genome in detail that has never before been attempted."

Even as this project gets underway, our attention to required innculations is declining, according to the Center for Disease Control. This makes the results of the proposed new genome project more important as we neglect old diseases and aren't always sufficiently aggressive about finding cures for newer ones. This will be an important project to watch which will hopefully be as well managed and as productive as the original Human Genome project.

Projects to Watch: San Diego Airport Authority

[Note: This is the first of a new, once a month feature, Projects to Watch. Each month, a major emerging long-term and significant project will have a "synopsis" and information on why to watch and how you can watch the project unfold over the months and years to come.]

After being confronted with some bizarre choices (an airport out in the middle of the desert, almost two hours out of the city), San Diego voters turned down a new airport in favor of operating current airports and transit more efficiently. In October 2007, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority launched a new web site to update San Diegans on their plans, http://www.sanplan.com/. In their words:

"The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Board is completely committed to its pledge to optimize San Diego International Airport for San Diego County residents and visitors, while meeting the continued demands of projected traveler growth until 2030."

This project will have a significant impact on the San Diego economy and transportation. Of special interest is the Chairman of the Committee, Alan Bersin. Bersin is a former Rhodes Scholar with a JD from Yale. He was the Superintendent of San Diego City Schools (now Unified School District and the eighth largest district in the US) and appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger as California's Secretary of Education.

The plans are also interesting since at this point, none of them consider adding an additional runway to our airport. While we don't have the weather concerns of San Francisco or Chicago, our singular runway has been shut down on occasion. It looks like there is a possibility of our light rail system being extended to the airport which is a big plus. I recently visited Atlanta again and the MARTA continues to be a very effective way to get to and from downtown. Other major cities have rail transportation leading to their airports as well.

If you are interested in learning more about the planning and possible projects, visit their web site or take a "Terminals to Tarmac" Tour on Saturday, February 23 (call 619-400-2880 for a reservation).