Special Features

Image Libraries

Blog
Chump change


These ain’t cheap

Now that construction on the road has started, project managers admit that the middle segment of the ICC will cost at least $150 million more to build than initial estimates, and a solid $100 million more than the very highest predictions.

Cost overruns on infrastructure projects are fairly standard these days due to the rapidly rising cost of materials. The global market is saturated with demand from China, so cost goes up. Overruns happen for transit projects too.

At BeyondDC we have long maintained that the ICC is too expensive, that it’s bad policy for Maryland to spend such a large portion of its infrastructure budget on one project of questionable value. So while we won’t attack the ICC for being over budget, we will simply point out that given the staggering dollar amounts involved, when a project the size of the ICC does go over budget it’s worth taking a step back and recognizing just how huge an investment it is.


Cost overrun for one of the five segments of the ICC $150 million
Total project cost for the Columbia Pike Streetcar $140 million

Never mind the total cost of the ICC. For just the cost of this single overrun on this single fraction of the road, we could build an entire streetcar line, start to finish. As in bam, done.

Just sayin.

September 4th, 2008 | Permalink
Tags: transportation



Media

   
   



Site
About BeyondDC
Archive 2003-06
Contact

Search:

GoogleBeyondDC
Category Tags:

Partners
 
  Greater Greater Washington
 
  Washington Post All Opinions Are Local Blog
 
  Denver Urbanism
 
  Streetsblog Network



BeyondDC v. 2013d | Email | Archive of posts from 2003-2006