It is really all the lawsuits, environmental impact reports, and bureaucracy that slows infrastructure down. We used to be able to build things quite quickly.

It is really all the lawsuits, environmental impact reports, and bureaucracy that slows infrastructure down. We used to be able to build things quite quickly. E.g. The Bay Bridge was built in 5 years for $77 million (~$1.5 Billion today) in 1931-1936. This is not ground breaking, but law passed to bridge opening. Just replacing the Eastern span cost $6.5 Billion and took ~18 years to build (1995-2013) from law passed to section opening.