Fairly so, and particularly good in introducing the "who pays for overruns?" whammy in the 4th paragraph after minimally setting the stage. "While construction

Fairly so, and particularly good in introducing the "who pays for overruns?" whammy in the 4th paragraph after minimally setting the stage. "While construction unions are backing this project, labor disputes could also get in the way." Some union dispute indeed delayed the start of the tunnel by a month. On the other hand many of the cited possible problems might have been amenable to fixing in place, e.g. the cutters in the front are replaceable. The terrible problem now is that its main bearing is messed up (forget if it's just one or more seals, or worse, or even if they really know yet), requiring this major excavation to get to it and then surgery. If the problem wasn't, or wasn't uniquely caused by that steel well casing, it could get broken again ... it's only done 10% or so of the length. And, yeah, the traffic projections aren't great. As I remember, no matter how people go "wow!" about the size of the tunnel, the capacity of it will be quite a bit less than the viaduct. Then there are all the other factors that can make it less desirable.