All around the world, construction companies are constantly pushing boundaries. Buildings are taller, cities are sprawling, and money is no object! The only limit appears to be the sky, but some megaprojects in the pipeline are even planning to burst through the clouds! With that, let’s take a look at some of the world’s most mind-blowing megaprojects that are still in progress!

The ITER

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER for short, is a colossal and experimental megaproject that’s set to be the largest nuclear fusion venture in the world. Its developers intend to demonstrate that clean, unlimited power can be generated at a commercial level, something our planet desperately needs!

As such, The ITER’s designated site in southern France has been under construction since 2012, taking up a plot of land over 330 football fields in size! That may sound like overkill, but every inch of this space is required to run the project’s state-of-the-art fusion device, called a Tokamak.

Unlike normal nuclear reactors, this specialized machine replicates the same reactions that power the sun! This involves firing heavy hydrogen atoms into a plasma that’s reached a toasty 270 million degrees Fahrenheit. In the intense heat the atoms fuse together, releasing about four times the energy produced in atom-splitting nuclear fission!

But, as you can imagine, building a facility that can contain all that heat and energy takes a lot of resources. Millions of components are being used to assemble the reactor, bringing the machines weight to over 25,000 tons, that’s over three times the weight of the Eiffel Tower! On top of that, 18 gigantic superconducting electromagnets, which will be used to control the superheated plasma, will each weigh more than a fully loaded jumbo jet!

But the materials of this megaproject aren’t as heavy as its eye-watering $22 billion cost. This makes it the most expensive scientific endeavour in history! And yet, the world won’t know if this pricey French experiment will pay off until it starts successfully producing plasma in 2034.

Chūō Shinkansen Bullet Train

The bullet-train lines of Japan, or Shinkansen in Japanese, are probably the most iconic high-speed rail systems in the world. They can reach a speedy 186 mph, making the 320 mile journey between Tokyo and Osaka in just 2 hours 21 minutes. As superfast as that sounds, Japan has a plan that’ll cut that time in half: say hello to the new Chūō Shinkansen!

Under construction since 2014, this new train line running from Tokyo to Nagoya will use revolutionary superconducting magnetic levitation technology! Instead of rails, the line will rely on a series of electromagnets cooled to a freezing -450 degrees Fahrenheit. At this extreme temperature, the electromagnets generate magnetic fields up to 10 times greater than ordinary electromagnets!

So, when these supercooled tracks come into contact with the opposing magnets placed on the sides of the train, they repel one another and allow the train to levitate. This results in a practically frictionless ride that’ll let the new, specially designed trains travel at a maximum superspeed of 311 mph! That’s so fast that the 2-hour-21-minute trip between Tokyo and Osaka will be cut to a staggering 67 minutes!

ABOUT SCMAGLEV by Central Japan Railway Company official channel

But constructing a state-of-the-art train line over 300 miles has not, understandably, been easy. Initial construction costs were estimated at $48 billion, but this has since skyrocketed to a bank-breaking $86 billion, including the cost of the trains! This is because tunnels will make up around 70 to 80% of the lines total length.

But blasting and boring through that much landscape takes time and money, much more than they first thought! As such, the Chūō Shinkansen has been under construction since 2014, but passengers won’t be able to ride until at least 2034.

Lusail City

Rising dramatically out of the sands of the Qatari desert is a glittering metropolis. Although it may seem developed to an untrained eye, it’s not quite finished. In fact, it’s being built up entirely from scratch! Lusail is a sprawling city that’s stretched over 14 and a half square miles of desert coastline in the richest country in the world: Qatar!

The city, designed to accommodate 450,000 people, was initially conceived in 2005. But when it was announced in 2010 that Qatar would be hosting the 2022 World Cup, development of the city suddenly kicked off! Sinking an extravagant $45 billion into its development, construction work started to bring multi-billion-dollar residential areas, commercial districts, islands, and hotels to life, and all in record time!

Lusail slowly began rising out of the barren desert sands. While it’s still under construction, a veritable, and habitable, oasis of luxury has been constructed in just 10 years! At this point, at least 95% of Lusail’s infrastructure projects have been completed, meaning this once-barren desert is about to become an oasis!

One of the crowning jewels of Lusail City are the Katara Towers. The incredibly unconventional crescent shape of this six-star hotel is made up of 36 stories on either side, reaching almost 700 ft up into the sky. The shape itself is inspired by the curved form of the scimitar swords on the country’s national emblem, turning it cleverly from a symbol of great defense into one of hospitality!

But this unique design isn’t without its own complications. The curve left a series of protruding slabs with different configurations at each level, ruling out the use of any standard framework to shape the concrete. Fortunately, with money being no object for the richest country in the world, Qatar used a whopping 10,000 customized Dokaflex tables to get the shape they needed! Dokaflex tables are some yellow sheets that were used to line each of the colossal concrete floors. The complex covers over 3.2 million square feet and cost around $600 million to construct!

The South-North Water Diversion Project

China’s Northern plain is one of the country’s major population centers, and it’s been growing exponentially for some time. But despite its popularity, the north receives less than 20% of China’s freshwater, and this isn’t enough to keep the area’s fast-growing thirst quenched!

Instead of laboriously relocating everyone in the flourishing north, the Chinese government proposed an almost impossible scheme back in the 1950’s. They’d build a system of waterways to divert over 118 trillion gallons of freshwater, every year, from China’s humid south up to the parched north. That’s over 12 times the amount of water in the Hoover Dam lake!

Despite the enormous scale of the project, three distinct routes were mapped out, each of which would transfer water away from the famous Yangtze river basin to the Yellow River! In total, it would require an immense 2,313 miles of brand-new waterways, that’s almost the same distance from New York to Los Angeles!

And when the green light was given in 2002, it gave way to a torrent of construction. Huge dams were erected to hold back new reservoirs, record-breaking aqueducts were raised from the ground, and gigantic waterways were built across the land.

But hugely ambitious sections like the western passage, which crosses mountains 13,000 ft above sea level, have required some inventive thinking. Scientists have brainstormed solutions from huge, costly canals to “air corridors” that would rely on the regions natural air flow to carry water vapor from A to B! That would be like trying to control the steam from a kettle around a mountain, which sounds more like science fiction than science!

So far, concerns about high costs and environmental damage have prevented a start on this ridiculous route. Although construction started nearly two decades ago, the entire megaproject is estimated to reach completion in 2050, almost 100 years after it was first proposed!

And, as you can imagine, the final bill won’t be cheap! Initial estimates put the cost of this mammoth project at a bank breaking $62 billion. But by 2014 it had already cost a colossal $79 billion, making it one of the most expensive engineering projects in the world! It looks like all that water requires one hell of a cash flow.

The New Silk Road

You’ve probably heard ancient tales, or at least, the name, of the old Silk Road. It was a legendary road that connected the East to the West, bringing endless trade and unfathomable wealth to both sides. And now, following China’s grand entrance onto the modern world stage, that ancient road is being resurrected, but it’s going to go farther than it ever did before.

Announced by China in 2013, the new double-trade corridor is comprised of 2 routes that will span across 3 continents, running through no less than 68 countries. Constructing a “belt” route over the land, and a “road” maritime route across the sea, China and Central Asia will be linked with the far-flung reaches of Europe and Africa!

But all the new roads, harbors, bridges, and powerplants it’ll take to make China’s economic dream come true isn’t going to be cheap. While China’s investing an eye-watering $900 billion into projects on its own soil, it’s also offering a mind-blowing $8 trillion for infrastructure investments of the other 68 countries! That means it’ll affect about 65% of the global population as it’ll cover an utterly unfathomable 25% of all goods and services moved around the world.

This is, without a doubt, the largest infrastructure project of the century, with a target completion date of 2049. But coming from the country that built the world’s longest wall, this sounds like just another Tuesday for them!

Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium

When China’s not busy with world-changing trade routes or cross-country waterways, they set their sights on slightly smaller projects, like building the world’s largest soccer stadium! Built to accommodate Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC, the stadium’s foundations have been broken over a stunning 150,000 sq. ft in China’s Guangzhou South district.

The soccer club’s new home was designed to boast an incredible 100,000 seats along with 168 VIP suits, costing them an eye-watering $1.7 billion! But the only thing more controversial than that outrageous price tag is its initial design. Matching Guangzhou’s reputation as "the city of flowers", this garish concept was inspired by the, ironically, delicate bingdi lotus. Determined to be seen even at night, it was even designed to light up in a dazzling variety of unmissable colors!

Unfortunately, its announcement was met with huge criticism from the architectural community. Afraid of their world-class landmark becoming a world-class laughingstock, the design was replaced by an architectural gem, literally! More angular and silver than its brightly colored predecessor, it resembles a giant diamond to represent the city’s place in the global jewelry industry.

What’s more, the materials used to create the effect will be more cost-efficient than the flowery light show alternative! That sharp outer structure will be constructed from perforated aluminum to ensure good ventilation during Guangzhou’s sweltering summers. And much of the shining glass will be photovoltaic, like that of solar panels, to help the club generate its own clean energy supply!

However, the project was halted because of Evergrande's financial problems. The government took it over in 2021, and it's expected to be ready by the end of 2025.

Abraj Kudai Hotel

Hotels like the Vegas’ iconic green MGM Grand or Malaysia’s trippy First World Hotel might be pretty big, but they’re nothing in comparison to Saudi Arabia’s record breaker: The Abraj Kudai.

Designed to resemble a traditional Saudi desert fortress, the 12 imposing 30 to 48 story towers will give this megastructure over 15 million square ft of floor space. For perspective, that’s about the same as 260 football fields! With all that space, this huge hospitality hot spot will have an astounding 10,000 guest rooms, 70 restaurants, 4 helipads and even a ballroom inside that giant dome.

But why would Saudi Arabia need a hotel so huge and, clearly, expensive? That all comes down to its location, which is just over a mile south of the sacred Islamic site of the Kaaba. With Islamic banking assets reaching a tidy $1.75 trillion in 2018, Islam is one of the richest religions in the world! And seeing as approximately 2 million Muslims make their way to this prominent pillar every year, the $3.5 billion mega hotel is bound to attract prosperous pilgrims!

That is, if it’s ever completed. It was expected to open around 2017, but it's still not finished. It turns out huge financial problems in 2015 hit its development hard and, while the government is keen to continue building, there’s been no significant progress since.

The Dubai Creek Tower

With 24 skyscrapers over 980 ft high, the middle eastern city of Dubai has a skyline comprised of some of the tallest buildings in the world. And soon to tower over them all will be the $1 billion waterfront development of Dubai’s Creek Tower!

Even though it’s already home to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which is an incredible half a mile high, Dubai intends to beat its own record. On completion, The Creek Tower will reign supreme somewhere between 3,045 ft and a whopping 3,300 ft, that’s at least 300 ft above the Burj Khalifa! But the exact number is being kept a secret, all to prevent competitive projects from stealing the title!

But for all that height, just 20 residential floors will be encapsulated at the top, along with 10 observation decks in its minaret shaped bud. This is because the design is focused around one single concrete column supported by a vast net of steel cables which will anchor it into place. In that regard, the design is almost purely architectural! It showcases Dubai’s engineering prowess while keeping that world record title safe at the same time.

In 2018 the first exciting steps of the cloud-piercing leviathan were laid into the ground by pouring over 1.7 million cubic feet of concrete. With a weight of over 130,000 tons, these foundations alone weigh more than Canada’s CN tower! But then construction suddenly hit a brick wall. It was due to be unveiled at the 2020 World Expo, but all Dubai had to show was a large concrete cap in the middle of the city!

Unfortunately, the fallout from the 2008 financial crash and a drop in oil prices has left Dubai in an economic downturn. However, an announcement was made in February 2024 that it would be redesigned to be shorter than Burj Khalifa. In March that year, construction restarted and it's scheduled to be completed in 2025.

Jeddah Tower

But Dubai’s Creek Tower has some serious competition on the horizon! Across the Middle East in Saudi Arabia, construction of the highly anticipated $1.23 billion Jeddah Tower is also underway. When completed, the tip of this lofty creation will also reach approximately 3,300 ft high!

And instead of being a glorified space needle, Jeddah Tower promises 167 floors filled with over 600 residential and hotel rooms from tip to toe. In total, the final structure would contain enough steel to make eight Eiffel Towers, and enough concrete to make up 6 Hoover Dams!

Like that wasn’t enough to make Dubai sweat, construction on the Jeddah Tower started back in 2013 with a proposed end date of 2020! Since then, the podium structure of the tower base has been erected, reaching the 63rd floor.

But in 2018, less than a quarter of the way through the project, construction suddenly stalled following the Saudi Arabian purge. In this national crackdown on corruption, authorities seized billions of dollars in assets from major businessmen. Scandalously, this included one of the chairmen responsible for Jeddah Tower’s development! It was a severe setback and, while efforts have been made to continue construction, very little progress has been made. It's construction was restarted in January 2025. The newly set estimated completion date is in 2028.

Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park

Alongside its impressively tall towers, Dubai is also famous for its immense reserves of oil. But in an unprecedented move away from non-renewable energy sources, the city has pledged that at least 75% of its energy output will be supplied by renewable resources by 2050. And it’s under this initiative that Dubai’s spectacular Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is being raised from the desert sands!

This $13.6 billion megaproject will become the world’s largest single-site solar park, working to harvest the abundance of solar energy that shines down on the middle east. It’s been under construction since 2013 and has been gradually built up over 5 stages. With stage 4 completed in 2020, the glittering park is now made up of more than 3 million photovoltaic solar panels spread over 19,000 acres, that’s more than 10,800 soccer fields!

The panels themselves absorb and convert sunlight directly into electricity, and by 2030 there’ll be enough panels to produce up to 5,000 megawatts. That so much power that the park alone will be able to support at least 1.3 million homes!

Not only that, but its developers also commissioned the world’s tallest solar power tower. Currently, it sits at a staggering 728 ft, but it’ll eventually hit the heavenly heights of 853 ft! That’s almost three times the height of the statue of liberty.

Unlike the panels, the tower will be surrounded by a field of mirrors which will bounce light up to its peak. Here, the concentrated sunlight will heat molten salt to a spicy 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, like frying an ant under an exceptionally powerful magnifying glass. Then, the salt will be used to produce steam, which in turn will run a huge turbine that generates electricity.

With all this impressive desert technology, the solar park’s completion in 2030 will provide some of the cheapest electricity in the world at just 1.7 cents per kilowatt hour! In comparison, the average US electricity rate is a pricey 13.3 cents per kilowatt hour! With cost cutting like that, Dubai’s megaprojects will be saving the planet and the pennies.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Ethiopia is fast becoming one of the powerhouses of the African continent, and nothing proves that quite like the construction of their utterly massive Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. At almost 500 ft tall and over a mile wide, this huge hydropower project is set to be the biggest of its kind in Africa.

Construction of this colossal concrete blockade began back in 2011, when the Ethiopian government ploughed around $4.8 billion of the country’s money into its construction. Without any foreign investors, it’s free to keep the 6,000 megawatts of electricity it produces, which’ll allow it to power its manufactural and industrial dreams!

But its dreams won’t come true that easily, thanks to the water source they’ve built this gigantic dam on. You might have heard of it, it’s a little river called “The Nile”. That’s right; the longest river in Africa, and the primary freshwater source of Ethiopia’s downstream neighbors: Egypt and Sudan! So, as Ethiopia began building the dam’s reservoir, designed to hold a jaw-dropping 2.6 trillion cubic ft, or roughly 30 million Olympic swimming pools, of water, Egypt started sweating.

Filling a reservoir quickly reduces the amount of water that makes it downstream, potentially triggering a water crisis or even a drought. With this in mind, Egypt suggested filling the Grand Renaissance reservoir over 12 to 21 years. However, Ethiopia wants to fill it in just 5 or 6 years to get the most out of their hydropower plant!

The dispute has raged for a decade, and as the megaproject draws closer to completion with no agreement, tensions between the two countries have risen. Some reporters think that if a deal can’t be reached, it could lead to an all-out war over the water! Sounds like this megaproject is going to cause some mega-problems in the future.

If you were amazed at these huge megaprojects under construction, you might want to read about megaprojects that were never built and megaprojects that were never finished. Thanks for reading!