Is it regulation, or vested interests? When J.J. Hill did his thing, there was no landowners to argue with (comparatively). In Seattle, there must be a thousan

Is it regulation, or vested interests? When J.J. Hill did his thing, there was no landowners to argue with (comparatively). In Seattle, there must be a thousand landowners to consider in that 6 mile stretch. Each one with their own view of the need and cost/benefit analysis of the 6 mile improvement. Eminent domain is not without legal challenge of course, so this drags out the timeline. Underfunded court systems move slower than desired, adding to delays in the process. The 'regulations' would be about safety, electrical wiring, setback etc, which just define how things should be done for the most part and do not add time. It is dealing with all the vested interests of the property owners involved, and the sheer number of them. I am a property owner myself; if the city came to me a decided that my house was in the way of a new freeway on ramp, you had better believe that I am going to want my day in court to fight it. I have the resources to drag it out as long as possible - with extensions, delays, studies, blah blah blah. It does not take much thought to understand how to slow things down in court. I am sure there is a youtube video for it. Would you protest if your own house was to be destroyed by the 6 mile change? I assume you live in the Seattle area or you would not know about the statement. So if your own person domicile was to be destroyed, and it was a beloved place with a lifetime of memories for you, would you be complacent about its destruction or would you fight it tooth and claw? (I would fight) I think the overwhelming majority would fight. And then it takes 25 years to go 6 miles. It is not regulation but property owners. Specifying the diameter of a ground rod in an electrical panel does not slow things down, it speed them up by removing the need to think about it. Just build to code - someone else has figured it out. I don't need to calculate loads of the panels versus the density of the square root of the moon yesterday - I just sink in 2 ground rods 20 feet deep and 40 feet apart and am happy that someone else did the math. Life is an open book test, the printed regulations are the answer key. TL:DR Money not rules is the delay maker.