There's a small story in the media today about the "overhaul" of JFK Airport in New York City. It tells you all you really need to know about public construction in New York. Here are the highlights:
1. The estimated price tag is $13 billion. This is a 30% increase from the prior estimate that was released just nine months ago. The government said the increase was not due to inflation but to more investment (whatever that means.)
2. In this huge project, there is no money and no plans for the addition of one or two runways to handle more traffic. Projections, however, say that JFK will need more runways by 2025 in order to be able to handle expected traffic.
3. The overhaul of the facilities are expected to take 5 to 8 years. (In NY-government speak, that means a minimum of 10, and perhaps 15.)
Putting all this together, the government is going to spend at least 13 billion dollars (more likely over 20 billion) and get an airport that doesn't have sufficient runways to handle the traffic expected on the completion date of the project.
If this were a private project, the people in charge would be tossed out of their jobs for suggesting something like this. Since it's government in New York, however, it just goes on and on and on with a wasteful mess.
It doesn't have to be this way.
1. The estimated price tag is $13 billion. This is a 30% increase from the prior estimate that was released just nine months ago. The government said the increase was not due to inflation but to more investment (whatever that means.)
2. In this huge project, there is no money and no plans for the addition of one or two runways to handle more traffic. Projections, however, say that JFK will need more runways by 2025 in order to be able to handle expected traffic.
3. The overhaul of the facilities are expected to take 5 to 8 years. (In NY-government speak, that means a minimum of 10, and perhaps 15.)
Putting all this together, the government is going to spend at least 13 billion dollars (more likely over 20 billion) and get an airport that doesn't have sufficient runways to handle the traffic expected on the completion date of the project.
If this were a private project, the people in charge would be tossed out of their jobs for suggesting something like this. Since it's government in New York, however, it just goes on and on and on with a wasteful mess.
It doesn't have to be this way.
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