This is New York State, not NYC, and at least the article seems to focus on rural communities. That could make some things easier considering the NYC ground is

This is New York State, not NYC, and at least the article seems to focus on rural communities. That could make some things easier considering the NYC ground is notoriously chaotic already. Then again, the lower density could make it more expensive, and many more jurisdictions will be involved. Governments actually have a pretty good track record with larger projects, either equal to and, in some cases, outperforming private companies. What works against them is their tendency to oversell to get approval in the first place, leading to news stories of cost overruns. And, of course, that you rarely hear about projects working as expected, or private projects going wrong.