05-24-2023, 07:00 AM
(05-23-2023, 04:05 PM)westwardloo Wrote:(05-23-2023, 03:37 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I don't know what the process by which the number was arrived at, but the source itself is a regional staff report...it's definitely not an anti-LRT or otherwise biased third party, but it is presumably an estimate either in house or by a contracted engineering firm.
Thanks! I would very much like to see that staff report to see how the number was produced. I think they must assume similar construction cost escalation for the next decade. Ottawa is building 44 Km of Grade separated LRT for 4.6B. Either way sounds like the Region is getting fleeced the by someone. Imagine what we could have built for 5.5B in 2014. Probably could have done the whole network with elevated rail, elevators and covered platforms. At this point there is no way Cambridge is getting LRT unfortunately. I wonder if in 20 years we will be talking about how we could have built it for as little as 4.5B.
I do wish we could somehow fund/ coordinate/ schedule the construction of these large scale infrastructure projects continuously over period of time like 50-100 years. Like have a goal laying 2-5KM of track per year with 1-2 stations coming online per year. Just a constant expansion of Rapid Transit, instead of coming up with a grand plan every 10-20 years to spend billions of dollars only to have politician cancel or change the plans.
We aren't getting "fleeced" by anyone right now, because we are not paying this cost. It is more believable that this is a false or bad cost estimate designed to achieve some political end regarding the LRT project.