Efficacy of Private vs. Public Sector Construction Projects

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

One reason such projects often run over budget is caused by the government or their agencies basically re-writing the specs after the contracts have been signed, or even while construction is in progress. Many nuclear plants overrun budgets because safety requirements get re-written half way through construction. Of course safety in nuclear plants is a good thing, but it's maybe unfair to blame the private contractor.

Something similar happened to Eurotunnel, where a massive re-writing of the safety rulebook forced the company to the verge of bankrupcy.

It's a big problem.

It was nearly a century ago, but two major projects:

• Were government projects;
• Were completed ahead of schedule; and
• Were under budget -

Hoover Dam and the Pentagon.

I read the earliest public works project in American Colonies was a mill wheel in Massachusetts in the 1600s. Residents had to pay, like it or not. But as with all such claims by Massachusetts, it pays to check if someone else did it first. Not a tax, but something like it:

Of course, it's in the Constitution, "To establish Post Offices and post Roads," and transportation was a constant debate on policy and expenses in the US Congress. Infrastructure was called then Internal Improvements. There have been reforms, late 19th Century, then Harry Hopkins, FDR's fixer during the New Deal. I saw the result of Al Gore's Reinventing Government at a small historic conference at the the GSA Building, 1800 F Street, Washington. The folks there said the building was then 80% empty. A big standalone billboard picture of VP Gore adorned the lobby.

In a passenger ferry and Navy tangent, the GSA bought the Hawaii Superferry catamarans when that company went under. (Environmental concerns played a role, and political competition with airplanes, which have a hold on the market.) The GSA bought them and berthed them at Lambert's Point in Norfolk VA, at a small port adjacent to the NS coal yards. That was great for me, as an observer. GSA bought them because the Navy wanted them, but needed some time. It was bridge financing.