It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building; four years to erect the Golden Gate Bridge. The Pentagon took two years; the Alaska Highway just nine months. These days it takes longer to build an overpass.
For instance, planning for Boston's "Big Dig" officially began in the early 1980s with a budget of $2.6 billion, but ground wasn't broken until 1991 and the last ramp wasn't opened until 2006. The final estimated cost: $22 billion. According to the Boston Globe, it won't be paid off until 2038.
Meanwhile, the "race" to rebuild the World Trade Center as some kind of remorse theme park approaches its second decade.
And across the harbor from Ground Zero, Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has earned scorn for thinking that a proposed underwater rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey might be too pricey. Under discussion for decades, it was originally projected to cost $5 billion. Estimates are now $9 billion and rising.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Where's the shovel ready projects?
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Paul Krugman, recently posted an article lambasting Christie for mothballing the jersey tunnel. He lamented that we are short sighted for wanting to save that money. My question is, if this was such a a great fucking project, why the hell was it not part of the stimulus? And if the money was spent on something more valuable, what was it? And where is it.
We have a $500m piece of rust that spans the Ohio called the Brent Spence bridge. It has been up for renovation for 25 years. Yet there it sits. If I saw 50 men out there this summer painting it with rustoleum I would have concluded that the stimulus was working. But a trillion dollars later I have not seen a single dime of return.
Intead we get, "OK now that we have spent a trillion, you selfish citizens need to buckle down so we can start on infrastructure.".
Congratulations libs. You have done the impossible. You have made republicans looks like super-geniuses.
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