• emizeko [they/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    the USA is no longer capable of accomplishing a project like this

    • inshallah2 [none/use name]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      That was my thought too.

      For example - imagine the project actually began and it had a proposed budget of $3.1 billion and a timeline of 5 years. 4 years later they would have spent $4.4B (the extra money coming from emergency funds or something) and the project would be 20% finished even though pols said it was "half completed". Then what happens? Do they abandon it? Of course not - it's waaaaaaay too big too fail.

      I have a feeling a similar thing is going to happen in most states as they spend the money from the infrastructure bill. Projects will run out of money halfway through. And then we'll learn that construction firms were somehow systemically overcharging "by mistake" nationwide.

      • emizeko [they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        CA high speed rail was approved in 2008. they might build something in 2023 and the cost estimate has gone up 2.5x

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-Speed_Rail

        in that time China has laid more than 32,000 km of high speed rail

      • Ecoleo [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        20% finished in four years is waaaaaay too optimistic

          • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Environmental report is released and to go forward they have to murder 5% of manhattan, poison the water supply, and three endangered species. The project gets approved.

            • CTHlurker [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              To honor Robert Moses and keep his legacy alive, we also microtargetted 3 different schools and neighbourhoods with mostly black and Puerto Rican residents, which we ground down to their finest atoms.

    • groundling20XX [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I honestly don’t think it sounds like a bad idea for throwing around but the US killed off all its productive engineering capital long ago. Any project like this would be incredibly expensive since they would have to pay out for foreign expertise and shipping of equipment.