I gave a talk about this recently[1], mentioning the 2nd Avenue subway. Another point of comparison is that here in the UK, the entire National Rail network was

I gave a talk about this recently[1], mentioning the 2nd Avenue subway. Another point of comparison is that here in the UK, the entire National Rail network was effectively planned and built in 22 years. Almost 2 centuries ago. When London's Crosrail 2 comes online next year -- a single rail line -- it will have taken 78 years from start to finish. It's not just safety standards: it's increasing complexity at every level of the project. Project management is an O(n^2) problem, with "O" being every new technical expert, community stakeholder, or regulator involved in the process. Many of whom are there for truly excellent reasons, but nonetheless it means civilisation has gotten a couple orders of magnitude worse at executing large projects, in terms of both time and money. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ygQC1oKQE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ygQC1oKQE