Megaprojects: Some Assembly Required w/ Ian MacGregor

Canada is once again attempting to build nuclear megaprojects after a long pause, making the experience of people who have actually delivered recent large industrial projects increasingly valuable.
Ian McGregor is a veteran Alberta engineer, entrepreneur and industrial project developer who helped conceive and build the $12 billion Northwest Sturgeon Refinery and the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line.In this episode we use that project to explore the realities of megaproject delivery: incomplete engineering, supply-chain delays, labour bottlenecks, cost escalation and the challenge of coordinating thousands of critical components across a vast industrial site.
We also dive into the refinery’s near-disastrous gasifier burner failure, where a mission-critical component designed to last thousands of hours failed after just 40, forcing McGregor and a small team of engineers and tradespeople to redesign it themselves. From there the conversation broadens into the economics of nation-building infrastructure, why governments often have to play a role in projects with century-long paybacks, and what Canada’s nuclear revival can learn from one of the country’s most ambitious recent industrial megaprojects.Listen to Decouple on:• Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6PNr3ml8nEQotWWavE9kQz• Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decouple/id15165… Overcast: overcast.fm/itunes1516526694/decouple• Pocket Casts: pca.st/ehbfrn44• RSS: anchor.fm/s/23775178/podcast/rssWebsite: decouple.media