Actually, civil engineers routinely deliver infrastructure projects on time and budget with accurate projections in Spain and Korea. [0] The failure of projections in the USA and the typical 10x cost for the same project (at least as far as underground rail -- bridges may be only 5x) and the cost overruns have multiple, layered causes.<p>Incompetent planning, political self-aggrandizement, aesthetic confusion, diffusion of responsibility, corruption, not-invented-here, trade protectionism, failure to learn from experience, anti-corruption measures that actually promote corruption like closed competitive bid-plus overrun processes, and a general lack of interest among the public in electing officials that even promise to confront past failures and improve are just the beginning. The Augean Stables of American infrastructure spending are deep in muck and we have no Heracles on the horizon.<p>The Second Avenue Subway, the eventual Hudson tunnel, the Bay Bridge, insanely expensive BART to SFO, Seattle&#x27;s tunnel, CA High Speed Rail, and the like are just a taste of a very expensive and gridlocked future if we don&#x27;t change our ways.<p>[0]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;06&#x2F;03&#x2F;comparative-subway-construction-costs-revised&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;06&#x2F;03&#x2F;comp...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;10&#x2F;28&#x2F;construction-costs-and-perceptions&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pedestrianobservations.wordpress.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;10&#x2F;28&#x2F;cons...</a>