As much as boondoggle this project is, it also illustrate the problems of building anything in America.
Securing land for any large projects, like freeways and railroads, (mines, large factories, developments) is almost impossible. Bureaucratic nightmare, all kind of lawsuits, need for all kind of permits, approvals and studies, archeological, environmental etc. Deep state and lawyers, luddites at their best!
Obama, Trump and Bidet infrastructure projects run into this wall of bureaucracy, and there is no solution on sight.
AZ just build a short bypass of the Phoenix downtown.
Took about 2 years to build, but like 30 years of lawsuits and permits to get to it.
We just tied ourselves to knots, by getting the lawyers dominate our building projects.
It seems a little odd that a private concern can build high speed rail in Florida between Orlando and West Palm Beach in as little as 3 years but California and the feds cant even get high speed rail between Bakersfield and Merced in a decade. The rail line in Florida runs though a very population dense area and the California line runs through mainly farm land. It almost seems as though California doesn’t really want to finish construction. I wonder why that is? /s
Good post—whenever I hear a politician talk about infrastructure I just start laughing.
Anyone who has actually tried to build any major projects knows they will be buried under a pile of environmental lawsuits and permitting nightmares.
We will have colonies on Mars before CA completes a bullet train connecting SF and LA.
Reason—there are no bureaucrats on Mars!