The Tower of Babel project failed because the people working on it all spoke the same language, making coordination and organization difficult. As the project grew in scale, the people building the tower said "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." God saw what they were doing and said "Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So God scattered the people and confused their languages, ending the Tower of Babel project.