4 ms·
Roads alone cost $2-3M/mile and last 30 years. Amortized, that's on the order of $100k/yr/mile. In a city, that would be $100k / 10 city blocks, probably 100 p
by sagarm 5y ago
Roads alone cost $2-3M/mile and last 30 years. Amortized, that's on the order of $100k/yr/mile.
In a city, that would be $100k / 10 city blocks, probably 100 parcels with 100-1000 low-to-mid rise housing units. In a rural area it might be just 10 housing units, at the cost of $10k/yr/parcel. And productivity in rural areas is 2-3x lower, so it's even higher as a percentage of per-capita GDP.
Add on top of that electric grids, water supply, sewage, emergency services, hospitals, etc. Bottom line: rural areas only survive due to subsidies from productive and overtaxed urban Americans.
- telotortium 5y ago> Roads alone cost $2-3M/mile and last 30 years. Amortized, that's on the order of $100k/yr/mile. Do you have a cite for that? I believe that figure for new roads, but you generally don't have to rebuild the entire road, including roadbed, after 30 years, just repave, which is a lot cheaper.
- BrandonM 5y agoAnd urban Americans only survive due to crops produced in rural areas.
- sagarm 5y agoWhich they pay for, many times over. Rural areas also consume goods and services from urban areas, but nonetheless they supported the SALT rollback for "fairness."
- jedberg 5y agoUrban roads don't last 30 years. Major roads with high traffic get repaved every few years, and even residential roads in urban areas need to be repaved every decade or so.