This article makes a good point.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americ...new-york-government-spending-tunnels-202f1619
The Brooklyn Bridge cost $300 million to build in today’s money. The price tag for the Golden Gate Bridge was $750 million. Based on those numbers, the recent $1.2 trillion infrastructure package should be enough to build roughly 4,000 Brooklyn Bridges or 2,000 Golden Gates. If you believe that’s going to happen, we’ve got a bridge in Florida to sell you.
The sad reality is that the country will be lucky if any new bridges, tunnels or major roads get built. The numbers are huge: $110 billion for roads and bridges, $66 billion for Amtrak, $39 billion for public transit, $25 billion for airports. But watch where that money actually gets allocated in the next few years. So far most of it has gone entirely to renovation, not innovation. Environmental rules, endless delays, inflation, work rules and politics all play a role in ensuring that lots of pockets get lined but few new projects move forward.
On Jan. 31, President Biden visited New York to announce $300 million in federal money toward a replacement rail tunnel under the Hudson River—one phase of a larger renovation that will cost an estimated $30 billion and be completed in another 12 years. By contrast, the original Lincoln Tunnel was built in less than four years in the 1930s and cost $1.6 billion in today’s dollars.
Despite advances in engineering, building methods and computers, one rail tunnel repair now costs 20 times what a brand-new tunnel cost a century ago and takes three times as long, if it ever happens. Construction timelines are measured in decades rather than years. Had the projects of the New Deal been done this way, they would have stretched into World War II and beyond.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americ...new-york-government-spending-tunnels-202f1619
The country will be lucky if the $1.2 trillion Washington is spending leads to any new bridges, tunnels or major roads.
The Brooklyn Bridge cost $300 million to build in today’s money. The price tag for the Golden Gate Bridge was $750 million. Based on those numbers, the recent $1.2 trillion infrastructure package should be enough to build roughly 4,000 Brooklyn Bridges or 2,000 Golden Gates. If you believe that’s going to happen, we’ve got a bridge in Florida to sell you.
The sad reality is that the country will be lucky if any new bridges, tunnels or major roads get built. The numbers are huge: $110 billion for roads and bridges, $66 billion for Amtrak, $39 billion for public transit, $25 billion for airports. But watch where that money actually gets allocated in the next few years. So far most of it has gone entirely to renovation, not innovation. Environmental rules, endless delays, inflation, work rules and politics all play a role in ensuring that lots of pockets get lined but few new projects move forward.
On Jan. 31, President Biden visited New York to announce $300 million in federal money toward a replacement rail tunnel under the Hudson River—one phase of a larger renovation that will cost an estimated $30 billion and be completed in another 12 years. By contrast, the original Lincoln Tunnel was built in less than four years in the 1930s and cost $1.6 billion in today’s dollars.
Despite advances in engineering, building methods and computers, one rail tunnel repair now costs 20 times what a brand-new tunnel cost a century ago and takes three times as long, if it ever happens. Construction timelines are measured in decades rather than years. Had the projects of the New Deal been done this way, they would have stretched into World War II and beyond.
