A Bridge to the Future

How much does it cost to build a new bridge in New York State? How much would you guess? $1 billion would have been my guess. Wrong! The plan to take down the Tappan Zee Bridge and replace it with a new one (and lard the whole thing up with public transport projects) puts the price tag at $20 billion. Which is a joke, but it's not a joke.

Postscript: A reader e-mails: "To me, even more astounding than the total price tag on the replacement of the Tappan Zee is that, according to the article, the price has increased by five times since they began studying it 4 years ago! How likely is it, then, that $20 billion will be the final price tag? Who knows what it will get up to - $50 billion? $100 billion? Really, anyone who thought that the problems & overruns at Boston's Big Dig were something specific to Massachusetts is nuts. It's all being repeated right here."