This is California’s great chance to out-do their fellow Democrats of Massachusetts and their champion cost-over-run, “The Big Dig”! That one was a mere triple cost over as (in constant dollars) it went from $2.8B in 1982 to 8.8B in 2007. Add in bond and administrative cost and the cost approaches $20B.
FYI: The initial US Govt. allocation of Highway Funds was vetoed by Ronald Reagan but Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-MA) and his Democrats over-turned it in short order. A further note of interest is that the I-93 now travels underground through the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Tunnel.
20 billion to ease traffic......right.
I’d rather sit on top of the old expressway in bumper to bumper traffic and at least have a view of the city save 20 billion of tax money than stuck in a dark leaky tunnel in bumper to bumper traffic.
On top of that the 20 billion tunnel looked to be 20 years old only a few months after opening.
Maybe they could use some of that money, the money not used to plug endless leaks to maybe replace some of the many dead light bulbs in the tunnel...