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This project had one shot.... and they...
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Canada. Mid-2010s. Milton–Madison Bridge Not a PPP, but a serious piece of infrastructure. Old steel truss bridge. Built in 1929. As an engineer… I love it. Around 13,000 vehicles per day. But… like all old bridges… It was structurally done. Fatigue. Corrosion. Narrow lanes. No shoulders. A bad accident waiting to happen. So they decided to replace it. Nothing new. But… they chose a method most people would avoid. Slide-In Bridge Construction or SIBC The idea is brilliant. Build the entire new bridge next to the old one. Then… shut everything down… and slide it into place. However… the idea is also brutal. Because now everything depends on one moment. You don’t get phases. You don’t get partial openings. You get one shot. That’s it. One shot. August 2012. They close the bridge. Fully. Traffic gone. Pressure on. Tick, tack, tick, tack… The plan: Demolish old structure Move 2,500-ton new span Align it perfectly Reconnect everything All in 56 hours. If this fails: Regional traffic chaos Political nightmare Massive cost overruns Headlines everywhere Balls hanging somewhere… Planning and very clear lines of responsibilities are everything here. Because systems don’t talk. Interfaces break. Someone didn’t think about something. Normal stuff… Well… in this case… Everything worked. Not luck. Systems. Interfaces. Design was aligned with construction method from day one Temporary works were treated as critical, not secondary Contractors, engineers, authorities… all properly incentivised under the same playbook Decisions were made early, not in crisis No last-minute improvisation. No “we’ll figure it out on site”. They slid the bridge into place. Ahead of schedule. Traffic resumed. No disaster. No drama. Which is exactly why most people don’t know this story. Because success is quiet. LinkedIn posts don’t get much attention when things work out well… Let me tell you something: Disasters don’t come from complexity. They come from: misalignment missing information wrong incentives That’s it. You don’t need heroes. You don’t need late-night calls. You don’t need emergency meetings. Although you may need… clicking in the link below. ​The Room​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
I’m reviewing a project right now. A mess. Close to failure. Fixing situations like this… is my bread and butter. But the real question is not: “How do we get out of this sh*t?” It’s: “How did we end up here… again?” Because this is not random. Every country has it. Every sector repeats it. And no… it’s not because people are stupid. Governments hire smart people. Companies bring top talent. Advisors look impressive on paper. And still… Same problems. Same patterns. Same endings. So what’s...
October 1962. A room in Washington. A few men in suits. Coffee. Cigarettes. Maps of Cuba. What can go wrong? Welcome to the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the permission of any meeting between Trump with his advisors, the most dangerous meeting in modern history. The problem? The Soviets had possibly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. 13 days to decide. Simple, right? Destroy the sites. Show strength. Win. That’s what half the room wanted. The other half? “Let’s not start World War III on a Tuesday...
You must speak up. Not in theory. Not on LinkedIn. In the room. Because there’s a lie many professionals tell themselves: “If they valued me… they would know what I think.” Wrong. “They should figure out” Again, wrong. That’s not intuition. That’s resentment… in disguise. Assume ignorance before malevolence. Read that again. People are not ignoring you. They simply don’t know what’s in your head. And you’re not helping. We live in a culture that avoids friction. People stay quiet. Nod. Let...