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NY - NJ Hudson River Tunnel Bites the Dust
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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">I think the point of canceling the tunnel funding is that once large public sector projects start to cost-overrun, there is no way to predict the final cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the more that gets sunk into them, the more leverage the contractors and boosters have to add cost because nobody wants to lose what has already been spent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the larger the project, the greater the prospect of the cost spinning out of control with no end in sight as everyone feeds on the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">If society could look at a collective need, determine the cost, decide it is worth it, and get it for that price, there would be no problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, with public sector projects that is not possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only way to reasonably control the tendency for overrun meltdown is to limit the size of projects that are undertaken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a point where project size reaches a critical mass, and the commitment to fund it is doomed to failure.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you spent ten-billion dollars, one dollar at a time, you might get no cost overrun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you spent it all at once, the overrun may be endless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I call it <i>feeding the seagulls</i>.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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