Visitors view a virtual building as part of a project led by a construction firm and its partners in a 3D immersive virtual reality room at the Cite des Sciences in Paris. Emerging technology is a way for the construction industry to develop a competitive advantage, but it also opens the industry to cyber risk.
Photo: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images
This piece is part of a weeklong series examining the challenges facing infrastructure around the world. Jon Phillips of the Global Infrastructure Investor Association is the series’ guest editor. The previous piece in the series can be read here.
As the current pipeline of infrastructure projects becomes larger and ever more complex, contractors are making increasingly risky bets that projects will be delivered on time and on budget. In the last year alone, we’ve witnessed two global contractors either file for creditor protection or go into liquidation.
This unforgiving paradigm is exacerbated by the caliber of competition: With the global construction sector…