Too Big to Succeed

When a major earthquake hits California, it has to rebuild - but at what cost?

A sunny afternoon in October, 1989. In San Francisco's Candlestick Park stadium, a pair of local sporting rivals are about to go head to head - the Oakland Athletics against the San Francisco Giants.

But before the first ball is pitched, the game is interrupted - by a major earthquake. A section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge - the major transport connection for the two northern Californian cities - crumbles, killing one person. And across the Bay in West Oakland, a double decker freeway collapses. 42 lives are lost. In the months and years that follow, San Francisco and West Oakland face a seemingly simple question - how to rebuild. Two major projects emerge. But with very different results. While one brings a community together, the other becomes a political battleground.

By examining the Iron Law of Megaprojects - which reveals how major infrastructure problems, far from being a silver bullet, become money-draining, ego-flattering albatrosses that overrun and under deliver - Matthew asks whether a simpler, more streamlined way to create the spectacular is possible. And in the end, is the pursuit of creating something sublimely beautiful even worth it?

With Darrell Ford, member of the West Oakland Citizens Advisory Board; Steve Heminger, former executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission; Bent Flyvbjerg, Professor and Chair of Major Programme Management at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia; Dr Karen Trapenberg Frick, Associate Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. With thanks to Ms Margaret Gordon, co-founder and co-director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project.

Presenter: Matthew Syed Producer: Eleanor Biggs Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey Executive Producer: Max O'Brien Music, Sound Design and Mix: Nicholas Alexander Theme Music: Seventy Times Seven by Ioana Selaru A Novel production for BBC Radio 4