The Unplumbed Depths of Government Data

People often hear about govt managed civil engineering projects (like expanding freeway) ending up way over projected cost/schedule.

Some of it is due to not so good management/estimate but often it's due also to bad record keeping by govt also.

Under/near most of major US roads, there's many different pipes/cables/etc for water/electricity/data. Different contractors are adding/modifying something but there's no absolute/good authority on what goes where.

So next time a major project is started, people have to guesstimate where cables/pipes are. And if you happen to run into incorrectly charted (or uncharged) pipes/cables, schedule is thrown off and of course people/equipment that were scheduled (and paid for) end up waiting or doing more work.