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In other news, in San Francisco, the NIMBYs won an agitation to prevent a 4 school building from being constructed. I am kidding..maybe. In all honestly, I th

In other news, in San Francisco, the NIMBYs won an agitation to prevent a 4 school building from being constructed. I am kidding..maybe. In all honestly, I think the time for US to create large scale construction projects that serve humanity (at the expense of environment) are over. We are lucky that the interstates got build in 1950s, that the NYC Subway was formed in late 19th century etc. Today, the regulations and outrage is so strong that none of these would have been possible. It is good to see other countries such as China being on the cutting edge to see what is possible.

drieddust 9y ago
They have not learned from sparrow killing episode I guess. This time though cost may be very high and entire world might end up paying.
brailsafe 9y ago
I feel like there's a bit more nuance in who's lucky that the interstates were built. But I do see your point.
beegeezuz 9y ago
You could still build, but you rather spend money on wars.
ehnto 9y ago
I see your point, but I think we have done enough at the expense of the environment. A little more forethought in that area is welcome at least. Some wild ambitious construction in favour of the environment and humanity would be excellent. But we seem suddenly frugal when that comes up. It's of course more nuanced than I am about to make it seem, but that world governments are not chomping at the bit to install as much solar as possible is telling. The price is right, but the incumbents are hard to motivate, and for some reason generation of one of our most important, most volatile and most polluting resources is a private market concern.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
tomcooks 9y ago
Not an engineer but, if your infrastructure is that old first of all I'd focus on maintenance, rather than having dick measuring contests with countries that have questionable attitudes towards pollution, safety and nature.
- spiderfarmer 9y ago
  The condition of the roads and infrastructure in a large part of the US is very, very bad when compared to countries like the Netherlands. It’s like the US is a superpower with third world infrastructure.
  - arien 9y ago
    Maintenance of old infrastructure in large projects is difficult and budget for this purpose is hard to justify, while building new things gets harder due to (self imposed) new regulations and higher costs (outsourcing might be cheaper, but always has some risks...). I don't know, sounds very familiar :)
    - tomcooks 9y ago
      While I agree with you 101% I think that politics play a huge factor on this: no administration wants to do its homeworks, only for the next one to profit from the shiny new infrastructure. I believe this is a stronger factor in countries that have a maximum amount of mandates per administration.
    - spiderfarmer 9y ago
      I’ll float an idea that will cost me karma: you could raise taxes.
  - saiya-jin 9y ago
    If road conditions would be the only attribute of modern society that US puts in 3rd world country bracket - but there is poor state of public education and healthcare, ridiculous prison state, very real police state, whole corporation/cash-oriented legislature compared to citizen-oriented like in Europe (often EU has to be the one fining/limiting US corporations when they don't give a fuck about human decency and moral behavior). Plus your taxes directly sponsor killing of hundreds of thousands innocents and pushing tens of millions into miserable life and making whole parts of this tiny little blue planet unstable for generations. Add semi-caste system in many parts based on your net worth. Real freedom is much lower too. Compared to EU, it's a great place to start/do business or just be really rich, but can be pretty miserable to be a regular human & employee. Sometimes I think the only remaining things that US shines with is the military power, high level of some universities and financial power from USD. All results of successes in 20th century and nothing China can't surpass if they decide to (and they the necessary ingredients - patience and focus).
joering2 9y ago
Absolutely, +1. And that bridge collapse in Miami. God bless those poor souls but that bridge cost 14 million dollars!!! Yes! 740 feet of concrete at the expense of $14MM, now moved to garbage yard. Then add the most expensive mile in history (New York suway - one, cool, billion, dollars, for, one mile) and no wonder our infrastructure is in such poor state ;(
- CompelTechnic 9y ago
  I think that the $14 million for that bridge was a reasonable cost (assuming it was a functioning bridge).
- shuntress 9y ago
  Apparently $14MM is not enough to buy a bridge that works.
RobertoG 9y ago
I though the problem in USA for getting things done with infrastructure was the deficit hysteria, not the regulations and the outrage. Was I wrong?
- sgc 9y ago
  I think it's mainly that construction costs in the US are extremely high and it's not affordable in many locations.
  - raarts 9y ago
    Are those costs higher than in other developed countries? If so, why?
ThomPete 9y ago
NIMBY is one of the worst and most elitarian movements that exist out there and the opposition to Nuclear Power by environmentalist is not only ironic but it's hurting both the environment and making people poorer than they needed to be. Even Democrats are starting to see that now.

drieddust 9y ago

They have not learned from sparrow killing episode I guess. This time though cost may be very high and entire world might end up paying.

brailsafe 9y ago

I feel like there's a bit more nuance in who's lucky that the interstates were built. But I do see your point.

beegeezuz 9y ago

You could still build, but you rather spend money on wars.

ehnto 9y ago

I see your point, but I think we have done enough at the expense of the environment. A little more forethought in that area is welcome at least. Some wild ambitious construction in favour of the environment and humanity would be excellent. But we seem suddenly frugal when that comes up. It's of course more nuanced than I am about to make it seem, but that world governments are not chomping at the bit to install as much solar as possible is telling. The price is right, but the incumbents are hard to motivate, and for some reason generation of one of our most important, most volatile and most polluting resources is a private market concern.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

tomcooks 9y ago

Not an engineer but, if your infrastructure is that old first of all I'd focus on maintenance, rather than having dick measuring contests with countries that have questionable attitudes towards pollution, safety and nature.

spiderfarmer 9y ago
The condition of the roads and infrastructure in a large part of the US is very, very bad when compared to countries like the Netherlands. It’s like the US is a superpower with third world infrastructure.
- arien 9y ago
  Maintenance of old infrastructure in large projects is difficult and budget for this purpose is hard to justify, while building new things gets harder due to (self imposed) new regulations and higher costs (outsourcing might be cheaper, but always has some risks...). I don't know, sounds very familiar :)
  - tomcooks 9y ago
    While I agree with you 101% I think that politics play a huge factor on this: no administration wants to do its homeworks, only for the next one to profit from the shiny new infrastructure. I believe this is a stronger factor in countries that have a maximum amount of mandates per administration.
  - spiderfarmer 9y ago
    I’ll float an idea that will cost me karma: you could raise taxes.
- saiya-jin 9y ago
  If road conditions would be the only attribute of modern society that US puts in 3rd world country bracket - but there is poor state of public education and healthcare, ridiculous prison state, very real police state, whole corporation/cash-oriented legislature compared to citizen-oriented like in Europe (often EU has to be the one fining/limiting US corporations when they don't give a fuck about human decency and moral behavior). Plus your taxes directly sponsor killing of hundreds of thousands innocents and pushing tens of millions into miserable life and making whole parts of this tiny little blue planet unstable for generations. Add semi-caste system in many parts based on your net worth. Real freedom is much lower too. Compared to EU, it's a great place to start/do business or just be really rich, but can be pretty miserable to be a regular human & employee. Sometimes I think the only remaining things that US shines with is the military power, high level of some universities and financial power from USD. All results of successes in 20th century and nothing China can't surpass if they decide to (and they the necessary ingredients - patience and focus).

joering2 9y ago

Absolutely, +1. And that bridge collapse in Miami. God bless those poor souls but that bridge cost 14 million dollars!!! Yes! 740 feet of concrete at the expense of $14MM, now moved to garbage yard. Then add the most expensive mile in history (New York suway - one, cool, billion, dollars, for, one mile) and no wonder our infrastructure is in such poor state ;(

CompelTechnic 9y ago
I think that the $14 million for that bridge was a reasonable cost (assuming it was a functioning bridge).
shuntress 9y ago
Apparently $14MM is not enough to buy a bridge that works.

RobertoG 9y ago

I though the problem in USA for getting things done with infrastructure was the deficit hysteria, not the regulations and the outrage. Was I wrong?

sgc 9y ago
I think it's mainly that construction costs in the US are extremely high and it's not affordable in many locations.
- raarts 9y ago
  Are those costs higher than in other developed countries? If so, why?

ThomPete 9y ago

NIMBY is one of the worst and most elitarian movements that exist out there and the opposition to Nuclear Power by environmentalist is not only ironic but it's hurting both the environment and making people poorer than they needed to be. Even Democrats are starting to see that now.