Yes, you read that right, for a stretch of 18 miles of I75 in Michigan, it will take 14 years at a cost of 1.3 billion dollars, or 72 million dollars per mile to fix.
Oh, and it will take 14 years to do it, giving a snail's pace of an average 1.3 miles per year.
Of course by the end of 14 years they're going to have to start fixing what they started 14 years ago...
The Detroit News: I-75 work launches between Troy and Bloomfield Twp.
Yes, it will include fixing quite a few vehicular and pedestrian bridges over the highway and adding a lane so it's not a little job, but still to schedule a repair of 18 miles over 14 years is certainly the very opposite of an aggressive schedule.
Speaking of the addiitonal lane, while the added lane would be a darn good idea and badly needed, they're going to take away a lot of the benefits of the additional lane in reducing congestion by making it an HOV-only lane, not to mention that in 14 years when this is finally done they may need to add yet another lane.
2 comments:
Man, talk about inflation!
When I was 10 years old, we headed Out West from Illinois to spend the whole summer traveling. We drove on one section of the Interstate that went through mountains, and along the Colorado River.
The people at the gas stations we stopped at told us it cost "A Million Dollars Per Mile!" to build that stretch....
I was going to make the same comment. When i was a kid, the Interstate system was in the process of being built, and the rule of thumb was "a million dollars per mile."
Back then there were no environmental impact statements, most of the highways went through rural land, and the main cost was buying the land (which had been bought up by people who knew people, so the price was inflated). Widening a highway through an urban area is an ungodly expensive and time-consuming nightmare, not only because of eminent domain costs, but the costs of removing, rerouting, and replacing drainage, electrical, gas, etc., and the cost of rebuilding bridges. But at least you don't have to worry about spotted owls or snail darters. Good luck.
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