Mongabay is launching a six-part series on infrastructure projects in peninsular Malaysia. The series will explore the magnitude and environmental consequences of massive infrastructure projects undertaken in the name of modernizing Malaysia.We discovered that while the concerns about the security of air, water and land are justified, this program produced unexpected economic gains, as well as considerable financial and political challenges.Surprise election results in May brought in a new government, placing into question the future of several planned projects. Spring Energy is the just the sort of homegrown, super successful, keenly entrepreneurial company that developing nations across the world crave. Based in a tidy three-story building not far from central Kuala Lumpur, the company’s influence extends across the Malaysian peninsula. Spring Energy operates six quarries across Malaysia, four ready-mix concrete batching plants, three asphalt plants, and a fleet of trucks, concrete mixers, and paving equipment. The company and its customers supply building materials for skyscrapers, smooth roads and industrial yards, boulders for sea walls and stone for high-speed rail lines. Never in its 21-year history, though, has Spring Energy signed as many construction contracts as it has in the last two years. The company now counts 1,000 employees. Its overflowing order book is a pure reflection of the infrastructure construction boom that over the last decade has altered Malaysia’s peninsula and island landscape. But on May 9, 2018, Najib Razak, who had held office as Malaysia’s prime minister since 2009, was ousted in a shock election defeat. Najib, who also served as the country’s finance minister, had sponsored about $100 billion in rail, port, energy, road, and real-estate infrastructure projects as essential assets in turning Malaysia from a middle-income country into a top-tier Asian economic power.