From Yucca Mountain to Naypyidaw, 5 Most Expensive Megaprojects That Are Now Completely Useless
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| Photo by ben o'bro on Unsplash |
Ambition often blinds governments and developers to reality. We see this time and again when nations pour billions into infrastructure that serves no actual purpose. These massive undertakings are often called white elephants. They consume vast resources and leave behind nothing but debt and concrete scars. Here are five of the most expensive and useless megaprojects in modern history.
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, USA
The United States government spent decades looking for a place to bury its most dangerous problem. They settled on Yucca Mountain in Nevada back in 1987. The plan was scientifically sound on paper. The site sits on federal land about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It features dense volcanic ash that experts believed could safely trap radioactive material for thousands of years. The Department of Energy drilled miles of tunnels and invested over $17 billion to prepare the site. It was supposed to consolidate waste from nuclear plants across 34 states into one secure fortress deep underground.
However the project completely ignored the human and political reality. Nevada residents were furious about being treated as the nation's dumping ground. The state had no nuclear power plants of its own and felt unfairly targeted. The political opposition became a bipartisan war that lasted for years. The Obama administration finally cut off funding in 2010 and declared the project unworkable. The Biden administration has since confirmed that Yucca Mountain is not part of their energy strategy. The tunnels remain empty today. They are guarded by security and monitored by scientists but they hold absolutely no waste.
Forest City, Malaysia
This project was marketed as a dream of the future rising from the ocean. Forest City was a $100 billion collaboration between Chinese developer Country Garden and a local Malaysian sultan. They planned to build four artificial islands in the Johor Strait just minutes away from Singapore. The marketing pitch promised a lush eco city covered in vertical gardens with no cars on the surface level. It was designed to house 700,000 people in luxury high rises. It was supposed to be a tax free haven that would rival Dubai or Shenzhen.
The dream collapsed under the weight of geopolitics and economics. The developers relied almost exclusively on wealthy Chinese buyers to purchase the apartments. That revenue stream dried up when Beijing imposed strict capital controls to stop money from leaving China. To make matters worse the local Malaysian population could not afford the premium prices. Many locals viewed the project as a form of foreign encroachment rather than economic development. Today the city is eerily quiet. Fewer than 1,000 people live in a space built for hundreds of thousands. The beaches are deserted and the duty free shops sit vacant. It is a ghost town that serves as a warning about speculative real estate bubbles.
Naypyidaw, Myanmar
The story of Naypyidaw is one of paranoia and absolute power. Myanmar's military junta decided to move the national capital from the bustling city of Yangon to a remote scrubland in 2005. They did this in total secrecy. Some say they feared a US amphibious invasion while others claim they were following the advice of mystics. The sheer scale of the construction is hard to comprehend. The city is roughly four times the size of London. It features massive government palaces and hotel zones dedicated to foreign diplomats who mostly refuse to live there.
The most famous symbol of this emptiness is the 20 lane highway leading to the parliament building. It was designed to handle heavy traffic or perhaps land military aircraft during an emergency. Today it is completely desolate. You can stand in the middle of the road for hours and see only a stray dog or a lonely street sweeper. The city lacks the organic chaos and commerce that makes a capital function. Civil servants live there because they are forced to. Most regular citizens stay away because there are few jobs and poor health facilities. It is a sterile concrete fortress that lacks a soul.
Ciudad Real Central Airport, Spain
Spain went on a massive building spree before the 2008 financial crisis and this airport is the biggest casualty. Developers envisioned a world class travel hub located south of Madrid. They spent over $1 billion to build it. They included a runway long enough to land the massive Airbus A380 and a terminal capable of handling 10 million passengers a year. They believed that high speed rail connections would make it a viable alternative to Madrid Barajas Airport. They named it "Central Airport" even though it was located in the middle of nowhere.
The market reality hit hard and fast. The location was simply too inconvenient for travelers. It was over 200 kilometers away from the capital. Airlines refused to fly there because they could not fill seats. The airport went bankrupt in 2012 just three years after opening. It sat abandoned for years and became a symbol of wasteful spending. It was eventually sold at a bankruptcy auction for a fraction of its construction cost. Its only real use recently was during the pandemic. Airlines used its long runway and dry climate as a parking lot for grounded jets. It is a billion dollar storage facility.
Interstate H 3, Hawaii
This highway is a masterpiece of engineering that destroyed the landscape it was meant to celebrate. Interstate H 3 winds through the stunning Ko'olau Range on the island of Oahu. It cost $1.3 billion to complete which makes it one of the most expensive roads ever built. The highway runs almost entirely on viaducts to avoid damaging the ecosystem on the valley floor. It took 37 years of legal battles and construction delays to finish. It was originally proposed for military purposes to connect Pearl Harbor with the Marine Corps base on the other side of the island.
The cost was not just financial. The construction plowed through lands that are culturally and religiously significant to Native Hawaiians. Many locals protested the project for decades. They argued that it desecrated sacred sites and ruined the spiritual integrity of the valley. Even today many Native Hawaiians refuse to drive on the road. They consider it cursed. The highway is undeniably beautiful to drive on but it stands as a permanent scar of colonization for the indigenous population. It is a megaproject that succeeded in engineering but failed in ethics.
These five megaprojects stand as concrete monuments to a singular, expensive lesson. Engineering prowess means nothing without human connection. Governments and developers often fall into the trap of believing that if they build it, the people will inevitably come. The empty highways of Myanmar and the silent towers of Malaysia prove that logic is fundamentally flawed. You can pour billions of dollars into steel and glass but you cannot buy a soul for a city. A true community grows organically from economic need and cultural acceptance rather than top down decrees. As new trillion dollar visions like Saudi Arabia's "The Line" begin construction, these ghosts of the past serve as a critical warning. The difference between a world class wonder and a historical embarrassment isn't the budget. It is the ability to listen to the people who are supposed to live there.