Why U.S. Infrastructure Costs So Much

(Bloomberg CityLab) The plan started simply, as many plans do: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority would extend one of its light rail lines from Cambridge to Boston’s northern suburbs. It was estimated to cost less than $500 million when planning began in earnest in 2005. And it would provide transit access to some of the region’s most densely populated neighborhoods that didn’t already have it.

Then things veered off track. By 2015, state lawmakers temporarily canceled the Green Line Extension (GLX) after costs had ballooned to a staggering $3 billion; progress resumed after an internal audit and management overhaul that reduced the price tag by several hundreds of millions.

These escalating costs were not an anomaly. Mile for mile, studies show the U.S. spends more than all but five other countries in the world on public transit, and more on roads than any other country that discloses spending data.

Now, as the U.S. prepares to spend some $1.3 trillion on public works projects under President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure law, the lessons of how a once-modest transit expansion metastasized into one of the most expensive rail projects in the world are worth recounting. Otherwise, if history is a guide, the U.S. may not get much of a return on its investment.

“If we don’t bring costs under control, this generational investment will yield much less than what a generational investment should yield,” said Eric Goldwyn, an assistant professor at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management and co-investigator of the Transit Costs Project. ..............(more)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-08/why-building-roads-and-transit-costs-more-in-the-u-s?srnd=premium