Comment by cycomanic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cycomanic | Hacker News Reader

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> There is another degree of freedom here: project cost. Why on earth does 0.32 miles of residential road cost $1.5M? Having just managed a construction project much larger than this stretch of road myself, I am certain that a lot of the blame here lies with the contracting process as well as outrageous fees (and just sheer inefficiency) from the engineers and contractors. There is no valid reason this should be so expensive. In the rest of the world, I guarantee you they are not paying over a million dollars for something like this and their standards are just as high if not higher.

Numbers can vary quite a bit but 1m of road costs about 10000 euro [1] in Germany. So this seems cheap in comparison. Mind you the quality is also quite a bit better. I never understand the complaints about investment in infrastructure and having to pay for it in taxes. I'm generally glad to pay taxes and get a functioning society. But then again the country I live in also does not spend as much on military as the next 6 or 7 next countries combined. Funnily enough the same people who complain about taxes for the road in front of their house hardly ever complain about that.

[1] https://www.google.com/url?q=https://rp-online.de/nrw/landes...

> ... 1m of road costs about 10000 euro ...

Too little information. If 1m is length, what is the width? where is the road located?

If it's a two-way superwide highway in the middle of a big city, sandwiched between a similarly sized winding overpass, and an underpass, and the cost includes the overhead on the city's economy for shutting down that part of the highway for the given duration, we might be having a conversation.

It fits right in the middle for Autobahn, so in this case I assume 2 lanes each way (with a third at the right for emergency stops), controlled access, no major earthworks, and either steel or steel-reinforced concrete center and side barriers. Also including some trees or brush either side to shield noise and, presumably, also side winds.

Depending on curves, it would be rated between 120 km/h and ~200 km/h (though anything above 130 km/h seem to be declared as "no limit", deferring to the motorist's judgement).

> I never understand the complaints about investment in infrastructure and having to pay for it in taxes. I'm generally glad to pay taxes and get a functioning society.

In the case of the article, the road is not affordable. The writer isn't advocating for not paying taxes. The writer is advocating for not taking on projects you can never net on. That doesn't sound unreasonable.

> I never understand the complaints about investment in infrastructure and having to pay for it in taxes.

In the US, this is largely due to the perception (right or wrong) of budget bloat and cronyism on taxpayer-funded projects. Those projects have a reputation for cost overruns and generally being more expensive than comparable private projects.

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