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Last week, Bloomberg's Noah Smith wrote an article titled "The U.S. Has Forgotten How To Do Infrastructure" that asked a lot of questions that would get us to a [David] Goldhill like analysis of our infrastructure approach. Just like on Healthcare Island, on Infrastructure Island we have our own way of talking about things. And we never talk about prices, only about costs. And as Smith suggests, costs go up and nobody seems to understand why.
He goes through and dismisses all of the usual suspects. Union wages drive up infrastructure costs (yet not true in countries paying equivalent wages). It's expensive to acquire land in the property-rights-obsessed United States (yet countries with weaker eminent domain laws have cheaper land acquisition costs). America's too spread out or our cities are too dense (arguments that cancel each other out). Our environmental review processes are too extensive (yet other advanced countries do extensive environmental reviews with far less delay). I concur with all these points, by the way.
Smith concludes with this:
That suggests that U.S. costs are high due to general inefficiency -- inefficient project management, an inefficient government contracting process, and inefficient regulation. It suggests that construction, like health care or asset management or education, is an area where Americans have simply ponied up more and more cash over the years while ignoring the fact that they were getting less and less for their money. To fix the problems choking U.S. construction, reformers are going to have to go through the system and rip out the inefficiencies root and branch.
Much like health care, our infrastructure incentives are all wrong. Until we fix them -- until we go through the system and rip out the inefficiencies root and branch -- throwing more money at this system is simply pouring good money after bad.
Source: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/6/4/this-is-why-infrastructure-is-so-expensive
(Score: 5, Interesting) by BK on Sunday June 11 2017, @05:47AM (4 children)
I propose that the problem is the US Legal system that lets almost anyone challenge anything at almost any time and usually get an injunction.
So lets say I am the government road guy and I want to build a (rail?) road from where I am to where I want to go. I make a plan. Get it reviewed. Get environmental permit. Get funded. Get land. Lawsuit. 2 years later, a judge finally agrees that Eminent Domain is a thing. Even though the project was on hold, some of the contractors still had to get paid. Price goes up.
Project starts. Subcontractors bring in equipment. Some wacky middle school teacher decides to take 600 kids hunting for 'vernal pools' near the construction zone. Eventually all of the kids are found by aerial search (thankfully not charged to the project), but the one that took three days to find survives by drinking from a puddle. aka a vernal pool. Lawsuit. Project pays for equipment it isn't using, etc. Judge with no knowledge of frankly anything spends a year and finally decides that the road has to go another way.
New route means new Eminent Domain problems. New kids in new town sent out to look for new puddles, etc. Project runs out of money as delays were not budgeted. Delayed for a year to wait for new appropriation. Project ends with a crooked road at 50% over budget with most of the overage on legal fees, change requests, and equipment in place pending resolution of issues.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 11 2017, @09:24AM (3 children)
So you're saying that each infrastructure project is really some giant Scooby Doo episode where those meddling kids can literally be kids … or just about anyone else (especially someone who can afford to hire an attorney)? And each trip to a courtroom is really a years-long commercial break?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 11 2017, @01:19PM (1 child)
He's pretty much right. Every major infrastructure project is automatically opposed by an array of "public interest" groups who deftly practice the art of obstruction through barratry.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Sunday June 11 2017, @09:14PM
For a good example of one going on right now, check out the Purple Line in the DC suburbs of Maryland. Just got blocked again [wamu.org] on a Hail Mary lawsuit. It's been dragged through the courts for years, all the while costing more and more money and getting more and more expensive. It's ridiculous. Lawsuits over non-existent endangered species, eminent domain, you name it.
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday June 11 2017, @04:33PM
Whenever you drive by a construction zone during the day and see parked equipment and no workers, there's a really good chance that there is legal process underway.
...but you HAVE heard of me.