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Oregon and Washington looked at replacing the I5 bridge across the Columbia River also known as the Columbia River Crossing. $175 million was spent on the prob
by dockd 11y ago
Oregon and Washington looked at replacing the I5 bridge across the Columbia River also known as the Columbia River Crossing. $175 million was spent on the problem before the whole project was cancelled, http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/07/columbia_river_crossing_spends.html http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/07/columbi....
The estimates were about $4 billion. I believe the project never went anywhere because the states didn't want to put in their chunk of that $4 billion.
- PhantomGremlin 11y agoThe saddest part of that story is that there was a directly comparable bridge just a few miles away. That entire bridge cost $170 million, about 30 years previously. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_L._Jackson_Memorial_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_L._Jackson_Memorial_Brid...
- exelius 11y ago$170 million adjusted for inflation ends up close to $1.2 billion in 2015. Add in the additional safety regulations (not just on the design of the bridges themselves, but also the added costs of safety rules for construction crews, truck drivers, etc.) we've come up with since the 70s, and $4 billion isn't a completely batshit insane number. Big projects are expensive. Also, don't underestimate the effect inflation can have on large public works projects. Inflation over the course of a 10 year project can be as high as 35% - even if inflation stays under Fed's targets. When stating dollar numbers, projects almost always do so in current, nominal dollars because that's what gets you the lowest number. And all of this is before taking into account the financing costs of a large public works project (municipal bonds are tax-exempt, but they aren't free).