In our environment of cost cutting and &quot;fiscal conservatism&quot;, I don&#x27;t see any other way to fund a large public works project.<p>If the first estimate had been $4 billion (assuming we&#x27;re taking $6.5 billion in 2015 dollars and working back to 1998 dollars), the project never would have gotten off the ground. The government would have said &quot;fuck no&quot; and asked for another bid. It would have been mired in discussions, argument, etc for years before eventually settling on a $1 billion price tag -- that will eventually balloon to $7 billion or so anyway, because the winning bidder intentionally underbid because it was the only way it would get approved.<p>The only way to build large public projects like this is to take advantage of the sunk cost fallacy (or &quot;bait and switch&quot;.) Government contractors will get their cut, and the regulatory tack-ons added by local governments to put their stamp on it (and get some operating budget!) also add money.