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The complexity of that project is extremely high. My cousin is a civil engineer in Stuttgart, and he showed me a cross-sectional diagram of the affected area an

The complexity of that project is extremely high. My cousin is a civil engineer in Stuttgart, and he showed me a cross-sectional diagram of the affected area and the number of considerations seemed intractably high to me. But more generally, these kinds of megaprojects go over budget in nearly every part of the world -- especially when tunneling is involved. Here in the United States, two examples are Boston's "Big Dig" and Seattle's viaduct replacement.

blakeyrat 11y ago
In the interests of being pedantic, and local pride: Seattle's viaduct replacement isn't over budget-- yet. It's extremely likely to go over budget, but don't count the chickens before they've hatched. The last budget review came to the conclusion that it's still possible to finish the project as budgeted and scheduled. http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/04/23/bertha-project-expert-review-report/26222949/ http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/04/23/ber...
- icelancer 11y ago
  >The last budget review came to the conclusion that it's still possible to finish the project as budgeted and scheduled. They should open a betting market on these types of lines. I'd love to see the fair odds. I'd take out a second mortgage if I could bet "This project will go over budget" if it was even odds.
- oasisbob 11y ago
  On budget, perhaps. Maybe. On schedule? No. The report even says as much, page 4: "The tunnel project will not achieve STP’s original completion date of December 2015."
RockyMcNuts 11y ago
It's a bit rarer for an airport to fail a fire inspection 4 weeks before planned opening and then sit empty for years and billions in fixes.
phkahler 11y ago
This one didn't go too bad. It even came in under the revised (increased) budget: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Tunnel_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Tunnel_Project But now they get to drain the great lakes faster for profit.
m_mueller 11y ago
Another example: Switzerland is building the AFAIK still world's longest train tunnel. It casually went from 8 billion estimated in 1992 to 24 billion and it's still not open. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale#Gesamtkosten https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Eisenbahn-Alpentransversa... (German)

blakeyrat 11y ago

In the interests of being pedantic, and local pride: Seattle's viaduct replacement isn't over budget-- yet. It's extremely likely to go over budget, but don't count the chickens before they've hatched. The last budget review came to the conclusion that it's still possible to finish the project as budgeted and scheduled. http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/04/23/bertha-project-expert-review-report/26222949/ http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/04/23/ber...

icelancer 11y ago
>The last budget review came to the conclusion that it's still possible to finish the project as budgeted and scheduled. They should open a betting market on these types of lines. I'd love to see the fair odds. I'd take out a second mortgage if I could bet "This project will go over budget" if it was even odds.
oasisbob 11y ago
On budget, perhaps. Maybe. On schedule? No. The report even says as much, page 4: "The tunnel project will not achieve STP’s original completion date of December 2015."

RockyMcNuts 11y ago

It's a bit rarer for an airport to fail a fire inspection 4 weeks before planned opening and then sit empty for years and billions in fixes.

phkahler 11y ago

This one didn't go too bad. It even came in under the revised (increased) budget: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Tunnel_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Tunnel_Project But now they get to drain the great lakes faster for profit.

m_mueller 11y ago

Another example: Switzerland is building the AFAIK still world's longest train tunnel. It casually went from 8 billion estimated in 1992 to 24 billion and it's still not open. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale#Gesamtkosten https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Eisenbahn-Alpentransversa... (German)