Christie Ought to Hire Some Euros to Dig

Chris Christie is taking alot of heat for cancelling the ARC, which is the name for the extra tunnel underneath the Hudson river that would provide another rail link between New York City and New Jersey. The tunnel is needed, but as it stands it's a a huge waste/boondoggle. I've got a better idea, let's have the Swiss do the job. They just drilled a 35.5 mile long tunnel underneath the Alps for $12.58 billion (that's $354 million per mile). In NJ they're talking close to $11 billion for barely over a couple of miles (if that). Call it three miles, that's $3.66 billion per mile. Engineering differences simply can't account for the cost difference - the delta is 1) corruption, 2) ineptitude, and 3) union wages. Don't think this is a fair analysis? Remember when I told you about the Tappan Zee Bridge versus the Millau Viaduct?? It is a crime. We could have so much more/better infrastructure in this country, but we'd have to totally rethink how we go about it. Christie is right, no matter much a project is needed, at some grossly repulsive level of cost overrun, it is not worth it. Pains me to say it, but we should hire the Swiss and/or the French to build the ARC and the Tappan Zee on fixed price contracts. They may have screwed up their private sectors to no end with radical unionism over there across the pond but they haven't let union greed hijack their infrastructure needs.

NY Pols: "Our Ineptitude Is Measured In the Billions"

Here is an article about a contentious issue over an important bridge in my neck of the woods, the Tappan Zee. I will not wade into the issue of build new vs. fix, but I do want to note one stunning revelation in the article. Here it is: "For one, a new bridge would cost about $15 billion." Holy crap! $15 Billion, with a B for a 3.1 mile bridge! The French just built a modern engineering marvel of a bridge for about $500 million. A new Tappan Zee would be twice as long as the Millau Viaduct (but the roadway would be much lower), but that could hardly be a reason for the cost estimate being 30 times the cost of the MV. Concrete and steel have not gone up that much. Even the San Fran-Oakland Bay Bridge eastern span replacement debacle is estimated to cost $6.3 billion only after $3 billion or so of cost overruns due to its troubled political history. How on earth could it possibly cost $15 billion to build a new Tappan Zee? They must be factoring in unprecedented graft and incompetence. I guess local government officials here are truly self-aware and know just how godawful governments are at managing projects and doing things cost effectively. Self-awareness is the first step to a cure!

UPDATE: Minnesota has conducted a competition to rebuild the collapsed 35W bridge in Minneapolis. Price tag from the winning bidder - $234 million. Even if that estimate doubles in actuality, we could have 32 of those bridges here in New York with the $15 billion that local pols think they need to build a new Tappan Zee.

Tappan Zee Was Born of Insanity and Lives On In Insanity

Today, one of my favorite bloggers, Mark Perry, highlights a tidbit from my very own neck of the woods, and educates me in the process. The Tappan Zee Bridge is a godawful, terrible piece of infrastructure not worthy of an advanced society, but it is crucial nonetheless. (Note: it is not even good for killing yourself, numerous people jump off it every year in an attempt to end their lives and yet fail to die.) The story, of which I was unaware, of why the bridge was built in precisely the wrong spot is illuminating although not surprising.

If the bridge had been built just a bit south of its current location — that is, if it had been built across a narrower stretch of the river — it would have been in the territory that belonged to the Port Authority.

As a result, the Port Authority — not the State of New York — would have gotten the revenue from tolls on the bridge. And Dewey needed that toll revenue to fund the rest of the Thruway.

So Dewey was stuck with a three-mile-long bridge.

I have blogged about the Tappan Zee before. What is interesting to me is that it is a perfect representation of the inefficiency, corruption and all-around disastrous management capacity of government in general and the State of New York in particular. The cost estimate for a new Tappan Zee Bridge is about 30 times (before virtually guaranteed overruns) the cost of a modern miracle of engineering that the French just put up - the (rather gorgeous, IMHO) Millau Viaduct.

We're Getting Fleeced On Our Infrastructure

Walter Russell Mead highlights something that I highlighted here at NBfPB long ago by comparing the proposed new Tappan Zee bridge here in NY with the Millau Viaduct in France, we're spending WAY too much to build our infrastructure.  Our graft, incompetence and union rent seeking is measured in dollars...staggering amounts of dollars.