2. What factors contributed to ‘uncertainty’ in the project and how might these factors have been dealt with? The £15 billion Channel Tunnel project was the largest construction project ever undertaken in Europe and the biggest single investment in transport anywhere in the world. The project, which was funded by the private sector, made provision for a 55-year concession for the owners to design, build and run the operation. The Euro Tunnel Group (technically two holding companies, one in France and one in the UK) awarded the contract to design and build the tunnel to TML (Trans-Manche Link), a consortium of 10 French and British construction companies. For the project managers, it was a formidable undertaking. The sheer scale of the project was daunting in itself. The volume of rubble removed from the tunnel increased the size of Britain by 90 acres, equivalent to 68 football fields. Two main railway tunnels, split by a service/access tunnel, each 7.6 m in diameter, run 40 m below the sea bed. In total, there are in excess of 150 km of tunnels. The whole project was never going to be a straightforward management task. During the early negotiations, political uncertainty surrounded the commitment of both governments, and in the planning phase, geological issues had to be investigated by a complex series of tests. Even the financing of the project was complex. It required investment by over 200 banks and finance houses, as well as over half a million shareholders. Furthermore, the technical problems posed by the drilling itself and, more importantly, in the commissioning of the tracks and systems within the tunnel needed to be overcome. Yet, in spite of some delays and cost overruns, the project ranks as one of the most impressive of the 20th century.