Quote:
Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed
Up to $295 million for phase 1 - currently under construction. I would say that this will likely be under budget, could easily be 10% or more under budget.
Phase two - in 5-8 years (my guess) $64 million (city portion) in today's dollars. (airport is putting in $20 million)
Phase 3 - in 20-30 years, city and airport to split cost 50/50 for flyover ramps. I think the total is something like $120 million, so $60 million each. Of course, this is so far in the future that the design and cost are certain to change.
I think it was added up to $414 million in today's dollars. But that number is mostly meaningless. It includes a bunch of work that would be required if the tunnel was never built, for one. Second of all, lots of it is future dollars. Thirdly, the type of construction contracts, plus the 30% contingency (normal is 10%), and a lot of money could be saved in phase one. The weather will be a factor in the final cost, but it would take a lot of things to go "wrong" to go over budget.
Frankly, Nenshi was exactly right, council had all the numbers already. Plus, for the reasons I mentioned, trying to figure out the total final cost is useless.
Also, certain alderman still seem to think that the alternative to building the tunnel costs nothing.
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First, I wasn't implying that Nenshi was wrong, or that Lowe was right. It seems like you can't ask a question of Nenshi at this point without people jumping in to note that he was right. I get it. I voted for him to and I'm quite pleased with the job he has done. That doesn't mean he is beyond reproach though.
Second, if they're at $295m out of $300m that sounds good. I still doubt that it will come in under $300m (and with the rising costs of construction in general I don't feel like that is a bold prediction), but of course I'm hopeful.
Lastly, can the city really build a flyover or overpass for $60M currently? I have no idea. If that is accurate though they should be throwing these up all over the place. That $400M that they "found" this week could build half a dozen and still have money left over. You don't have to look very hard to find locations where we could use another overpass.