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Wasteful Local Infrastructure
By Chris Edwards of Cato.
"Politicians love infrastructure, but many local government projects
seem awfully wasteful. We’ve all seen the questionable spending—the half
dozen union guys standing around while one digs, the needless
reconstruction of sidewalks, the dangerous bike‐lane schemes on city
streets, the empty city buses clogging traffic, and those digital
announcement signs on highways with no useful information.
Local governments are flush with cash, and they waste it. Where I live in Virginia, a local government spent $1 million on one bus stop that should have cost $20,000.
Kevin Kosar flagged a news story yesterday about Washington’s terribly mismanaged transit agency. ABC7’s Sam Sweeney found:
Metro has spent $3.8 million and taken five years to
build two unfinished bike racks—at East Falls Church and Vienna Metro
Stations.
WMATA originally budgeted $600,000 for each rack, but the price tag has soared to $1.9 million each.
The covered bike shelters will house 92 bikes, putting the price tag
at more than $20,000 per bike. Future costs to finish the projects could
raise that number even higher.
The projects were supposed to be completed in December of 2015 but remain unfinished in 2020.
… In January 2020 signs at the fenced‐off construction site said the
project would wrap up in late 2018. After ABC7 aired its story in
January, the signs were removed.
Large cost escalations and delays are typical
on government projects. Also typical: government agencies not being
responsive to document requests and trying to blame others for failures,
as ABC noted in its story.
People wonder why their local governments can’t seem to fill
potholes, remove graffiti, maintain park equipment, and perform other
basic functions. It’s because they are wasting money on Taj Mahal bike
racks at $20,000 per bike."
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