ABSTRACT
Earlier on I defined a project as something that hasn’t been done before. This means that there is always risk of unexpected things going wrong, but risk is balanced against benefit. There are risks that the contract will cost more than the estimate, in which case it might take longer than anticipated for the benefit to be realised. The ChannelTunnel was so much over budget, and the owners had to borrow so much more money, that the annual income from the tunnel is not enough even to pay the interest charges. Even in this sort of extreme example, the risks are measurable in terms of money. But what about the possibility of injuries, or death during construction and operation, or of damage to the environment? Can these really be measured in monetary terms?
