did you know that there is a capital
city that was built for millions of
people but remains practically empty and
that the US wasted $17 billion for a
mega project that was never even used
and remains completely useless to this
day today we will explore five of the
most useless Mega projects in the world
before we continue make sure to like
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share your thoughts about these Mega
projects in the comments below
number five Interstate H3
Hawaii let's start with a breathtakingly
Scenic Highway in the Aloha state Hawaii
the 26 km long Interstate H3 passes
through one of the most stunning
landscapes in the world it is so
stunning that there were genuine
concerns of motorists stopping and
creating traffic hazards however the
highway is as controversial as it is
beautiful it was first proposed in 1960
with defense considerations in mind as
the highway would connect the Pearl
Harbor Naval Base on the south side to
the Marine Corps Air Station on the East
Coast the announcement of its
construction was immediately met with
resistance from environmental groups as
well as native Hawaiians who were
worried about the massive urbanization
the project would bring environmental
laws of the time and a change of route
to protect the surrounding valleys
delayed the plans
indefinitely 26 years later the
Environmental hurdles were removed when
the Congress Exempted the project from
environmental laws and cleared the way
for construction to finally begin in
1989 the highway was finally opened in
1997 almost 37 years after it was
originally proposed interstate H3 is
often considered an engineering Marvel
because of the difficult terrain it is
built on and the Advanced Technologies
used in its construction in addition to
the numerous high-tech tunnels the
highway runs almost exclusively over
viaducts to protect the local
environment in The Valleys below Decades
of Decay route changes and newer but
more expensive Technologies meant that
it was completed five times over the
original estimated budget the total cost
of construction was $1.3 billion which
is about $50 million per kilometer the
most expensive cost per kilometer in the
world despite the enormous budget this
beautiful Highway isn't useful for
everyone critics believe that it's a
road to nowhere because the defense
considerations of the' 60s are no longer
relevant and the highway has no direct
route to downtown
Honolulu then there's the case of native
Hawaiians a majority of whom refuse to
use the H3 to this day they consider it
to be cursed as many religiously
significant cultural sites were
destroyed during its completion the
interstate H3 highway is certainly an
achievement as far as Mega projects go
however for certain native groups it
remains useless at least it isn't
completely abandoned like the next
project on our
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list number four sad real Central
airport
Spain Spain is one of the Prime travel
destinations in Europe and that was a
key consideration when the idea for the
sudad real Central airport was conceived
it was tipped to be the go-to
destination for Holiday Travelers within
Spain as well as International visitors
the vision for this new airport was to
make it an alternative to the already
heavily overcrowded main airport in
Madrid the new airport had one of the
top five longest runways in Europe and
could serve 2 million passengers a year
that's a relatively low number compared
to Madrid's 70 million passenger
capacity however expansion plans were
already in motion to boost the capacity
up to 10 million annually so when it
finally became operational in 2009 the
$1.3 billion expense might have seemed
Justified however all these plans came
to a grinding halt in 2012 when the
company behind the project filed for
bankruptcy the problems began with the
location of the project while it was
called the central airport it wasn't
Central in any way as it was located 200
km away from Madrid this compounded
problems as most of the passengers
avoided traveling for hours to get get
to the remote location and most big
Airlines preferred to carry out flight
operations from the capital So within
the first year of opening the newly
built airport was reduced to a single
smalltime airline with no major airlines
to attract passengers the airport had
accumulated a $350 million debt by 2012
unsurprisingly it went into receivership
and was put up for auction in
2013 the airport was even popularized as
an abandoned Loc
by the hit British TV show Top Gear in
2014 after multiple auctions fell
through including an outrageous $12,000
offer the airport was finally sold to
new owners in 2019 a Spanish airport
that cost1 billion EUR to build has
attracted a bid of just 10,000 C lancha
airport opened in 2008 only to go
bankrupt and Clos by 2012 as businesses
crashed and profits dwindled during the
covid-19 pandemic the sad real airport
got a Lifeline with little hope of
passengers returning the new owners
reinvented the airport as a home for
Grounded planes given its dry climate
long Runway and spaciousness by August
2020 there were 65 airplanes parked on
the airport with expansions underway to
provide a storage facility for over 300
aircraft this new storage approach gave
the airport a much needed business
opportunity however all the stored
planes will eventually be gone once the
pandemic is finally over and the return
of normal flight operations remains
elusive this billion dooll Mega project
remains effectively useless for
passengers around the
world number three Napa
Myanmar next up is another Mega project
that made it to Top Gear unfortunately
this isn't just a remote airport it's
the capital of Myanmar a new capital
that was built from scratch Myanmar
former military leadership started
building a new capital in secret in
2002 the shifting of a country's capital
isn't unheard of as many countries
including Brazil Egypt and Pakistan have
done so in the past in November 2005
myanmar's leader announced his decision
to the public but he kept the name of a
new capital a secret it was 4 months
later when he finally revealed the name
Napa which literally means the king's
residence the reason for this sudden
shift of capital wasn't clear some
speculated that the military leadership
was fearful of an attack from the sea
While others thought it was shifted on
the advice of astrologers however a lot
of it had to do with the former capital
yangan Yangon is home to 7 million
people and the city is said to have
reached its infrastructural limits and
its population is set to double by 2050
moreover the coastal city was
established as the capital during
British rule to benefit the British
British Navy so it made sense for
Myanmar to shift the capital to a more
central location the new project was
built swiftly and to this date the
successive governments have poured $4
billion into the city Napa seemingly has
everything to attract visitors a 20-
lane Highway over 100 luxury hotels
divided into three Hotel districts golf
courses museums and even a 99 M tall
replica of a landmark originally
situated in yangan
but there's one essential component that
remains
missing the
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population the new capital is home to
less than a million residents most of
which reside in the suburbs that were
present even before the city became the
capital but why does no one want to live
there a lingering Gap in health
facilities lack of quality educational
institutes and economic opportunities
mean that most of the population is
reluctant to make the city a permanent
home so the city often Paints the
picture of a deserted place and is often
referred to as a ghost town the
incredible 20 Lane highway is
practically empty traffic congestion is
unheard of and at times a single
automobile is caught drifting along the
tremendous Road the city has an airport
that can handle 3.5 million passengers
every year but on a busy day a dozen
people will actually use it the shopping
malls are visited only by The Diplomatic
staff on weekends while the hotel
lobbies are mostly empty despite the
apparent barrenness there's a silver
lining for the Royal Capital it's built
as a city of the future and with the
exploding population napod still has
time for an inevitable Redemption for
now it's arguably the world's strangest
capital and remains useless for much of
the country's
population number two Forest City
Malaysia we talked of an apparent ghost
City and next on our list is a green
futuristic smart city that would rise
from reclaimed land on four artificial
islands and will be built around an
artificial forest
ecosystem Forest City's location makes
it an appealing bet for investors who
are aiming to profit from its proximity
to the independent city state of
Singapore Singapore has the world's
second busiest port and a thriving
economy the developers have already
linked Forest City with Singapore
through the second link Bridge
shortening the distance between the
cities to just 20 minutes Forest City
will also have its own Customs facility
enabling residents to move freely to
Singapore and back the design is
advertised to incorporate many green
Innovations Forest City will feature
buildings with green rooftops and
vertical Gardens providing a jungle
experience city streets will have a
multipl layer design with the lower
layer for tra traffic and parking spaces
while the upper layer will feature Parks
sports facilities and transport hubs the
city will be powered exclusively with
renewable energy and will be completed
by 2035 at a cost of $100 billion one of
the four proposed islands is close to
completion with 50 apartment buildings
golf courses swimming pools and beaches
on board however it's not all smooth
sailing for this highly ambitious
project a multitude of Economic and
political hurdles are already hindering
its progress the project is being funded
mainly through China and Chinese
residents virtually had a free pass to
the city in the first few years of its
construction as a consequence wealthy
Chinese investors who couldn't afford
the soaring prices of apartments in
their own country rushed to Forest City
by 2019 80% of the property owners were
Chinese even the street signs were in
Mandarin and the few schools that opened
in the area were offering Mandarin
courses the native Malaysians simply
can't afford to buy these apartments as
property prices are set with only the
Chinese markets in mind this influx of
Chinese investors caused a public outcry
with opponents of the project calling it
a new form of colonialism so after a
change of leadership the returning prime
minister mahater Muhammad banned
foreigners from owning property in the
Forest City many foreigners started
leaving the city and new investors were
discouraged bridged the next major
setback came in the form of the pandemic
and the worldwide travel bans Malaysia's
movement control order meant that no new
investors could move in lots of existing
investors opted out of the project due
to the uncertainty so by the start of
2020 less than 500 people were actually
living in the residential developments
which is not a lot considering that
Forest City is designed for 700,000
people the project has remained in flux
ever since with some salespeople
claiming that fewer than 10 homes were
sold at Forest City since the start of
the Corona virus pandemic moreover
Country Garden laid off more than 1,000
of its Malaysian workers in the past
year signaling the Epic downturn in the
Project's fortunes Forest City was
probably too ambitious to begin with too
futuristic to truly achieve and too
politically challenged to succeed
anytime soon it's safe to assume that
despite the billions invested Forest
City is currently a useless Mega
project number one Yuka Mountain nuclear
waste
repository we'll conclude this list with
a mega project that was planned in view
of a sensitive Global issue nuclear
waste isn't talked about as much as
other environmental problems however if
not stored properly it can be deadlier
than anything ever witnessed since the
Advent of
civilization as of now nuclear waste is
stored above ground near the the power
plants where it comes from however the
scientific Community agrees that the
safest permanent disposal solution is to
store this hazardous waste deep
underground in the 1980s us authorities
set about finding a permanent solution
to this growing waste problem in 1987
Yuka mountain in Nevada was identified
as the best available option it was
close to the USA's most used nuclear
testing site and was away from any
population centers the plan was to
deposit the waste from all over the
country in a tunnel complex about 300 M
under Yuka mountain in addition to the
isolated location Yuka mountain is made
up of volcanic ash formed millions of
years ago it allows the Yuka Mountain to
absorb any radioactive waste without
crumbling or cracking Yuka Mountain
seemed like a great location for a
repository on paper but nevadans were
having none of it the United States has
over 100 operational and closed nuclear
reactors sites in 34 States but none of
them were in
Nevada so the Congressional
representatives and the general public
vigorously opposed the idea of being the
only nuclear dumping site in the whole
country furthermore question marks were
raised Over the official hydrological
and geological surveys of the Yuka
Mountain opponents believed that the
site was unsuitable for a repository as
it runs the risk of contaminating a
nearby water source the Water Source
flows into Amarosa the valley and is
used by Native Americans who have lived
in the area for
centuries despite the opposition the
project won approval in 2002 and the
department of energy resumed
construction however Nevada's opposition
only grew stronger they contended that
routine exposures during the transition
will stigmatize Nevada's residents and
affect tourism in the state for the
opposition the only reason Nevada was
getting the repository was because of
its lower population and smaller
represent in Congress by the time Barack
Obama took office the whole project had
become highly politicized and in 2010
the Obama Administration deemed the
project unworkable and stopped funding
it 3 years later a federal court ordered
its resumption again but there has been
little progress since the Biden
Administration has clearly stated that
Yuka Mountain isn't a part of the
country's plans anymore Nevada seems to
have won the battle after four decades
Decades of planning legal troubles and
over $17 billion have gone into the Yuka
Mountain project but after all is said
and done it has never been used and
remains a useless Mega
project so what do you think about these
Mega projects do you think that any of
these have a shot at being useful in the
future let us know in the comments down
below if you want to see more about
similar projects you can watch our video
about the biggest Mega projects never
finished thank you for watching and
we'll see see you in the next video