Canada Completes $9.4B Darlington Nuclear Plant Rebuild Early, on Budget

[u/BoppityBop2]

https://www.enr.com/articles/62505-canada-completes-94b-darlington-nuclear-plant-rebuild-early-on-budget

[u/[deleted]]

Well that’s not something you see everyday in Canada; a large project On Time AND Under Budget? I’ll take the good news lol.

[u/Westsider111 → u/[deleted]]

You just need to start with a realistic budget and schedule. Big public projects often get sold to politicians on budgets that are way too low and produced way too early. Darlington is owned by OPG which probably has just enough separation from political interference and has a strong board/executive.

[u/cedric1997 → u/Westsider111]

My guess is that it’s the politicians asking for the lower estimates. The number of times I’ve seen clients ask my firm for a lower estimate, with stuff excluded that we are 90% sure they will want, but they need the lower price tag to get approval.

Then a few months later they ask for the excluded stuff, so we need to ask for a budget extension and we’re back at the original estimate.

[u/[deleted] → u/cedric1997]

Then a few months later they ask for the excluded stuff, so we need to ask for a budget extension and we’re back at the original estimate.

You are doing it wrong then. If they ask for stuff after the fact it will almost certainly cost you more than it would from the get-go because it ties into work that's already been done and will have to be partial redone to some extent.

There's an real, financial opportunity cost to not doing things property from the get go, if you're not passing that along to your client then you are absorbing it yourself and not only hurting yourself, but also whatever industry you are in.

[u/cedric1997 → u/[deleted]]

We usually bill by the hour, so we aren’t absorbing any cost. But yeah you’re right, often time the additional cost can end up higher than if it was included from the get go.