Your tax dollars at work… “At Long Last, a New Rail Tunnel Under the Hudson River Can Be Built” (NYT):
After four years of stalling by the Trump administration, officials in Washington approved the $11.6 billion project for federal funding.
The Biden administration has indicated its support for the project and the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has acknowledged its importance to the economy of the region and the nation. “This is a big step for the Northeast, and for the entire country, as these tunnels connect so many people, jobs and businesses,” Mr. Buttigieg said in a statement announcing the approval.
The existing Hudson River tunnels, e.g., the Lincoln Tunnel, are approximately 1.5 miles long. How then can this project be said to rival the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which is 35.5 miles long and 8,000′ deep through a solid granite mountain in Switzerland? The actual cost of the Swiss tunnel was roughly the same as the best-case estimate of what this NY/NJ tunnel might cost!
Related:
- “The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth” (NYT): “The estimated cost of the Long Island Rail Road project, known as “East Side Access,” has ballooned to $12 billion, or nearly $3.5 billion for each new mile of track — seven times the average elsewhere in the world. The recently completed Second Avenue subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the 2015 extension of the No. 7 line to Hudson Yards also cost far above average, at $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion per mile, respectively.”
Let’s see if this project will out do the Big Dig [1] project here in Boston.
“The project was originally scheduled to be completed in 1998 at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion (in 1982 dollars, US$7.4 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2020). However, the project was completed in December 2007 at a cost of over $8.08 billion (in 1982 dollars, $21.5 billion adjusted for inflation, meaning a cost overrun of about 190%) as of 2020. The Boston Globe estimated that the project will ultimately cost $22 billion, including interest, and that it would not be paid off until 2038.”
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig
On one hand, China can build a 10-mile tunnel 200ft under water for only $4B ($400M/mile).
On the other hand (as economists say), entire newly constructed cities in China are abandoned because the buildings are falling over due to shoddy construction (and the vloggers+their families who reported it chased out of China).
We Tu LoW
Talking about Serpent and Laoawai?
Bang Ding Ow !
Why do we keep throwing money away on train stuff? This is America and people like to drive. (I suspect because it’s good money-capture for some with big political influence)