City to start another Mass and Cass tent sweep on Nov. 1

at least it's finally moving! If we would've started 4 years ago, it would be done by now! That said, I fully expect this to take 10 years..

Seems fast compared to current projects.

The North Washington Street bridge project will have taken six-and-a-half years if it's completed on the current timetable; even the original plans would have taken five years. The Dot Ave bridge closure was supposed to last three months but it's going to be more like three years until they're done. The closure of Congress St under the Govt Center Garage was planned to last for three months but here we are nearly a year-and-a-half later and it's still not open.

I'm guessing most of those four years are the time needed to select a construction manager, design/engineering firm, get all the permits, order materials, and so on, and the actual guys and gals running around with hardhats and hammers phase is maybe a year.

It is a decent length/height bridge over a large body of water, so it's a bit more complex than during a bunch of concrete around some rebar. And I imagine the permitting is complex given environmental review/EIS, and the fact that abutters will no doubt continue to try to scuttle the project. And it's a government project so procurement rules will add a year to the timetable because reasons.

Permitting for infrastructure in the US is bat$#@! crazy compared to peer nations like France, which is a part of the reason why the GLX cost as much as a 100-mile TGV line and why the Acela runs at bus speeds despite serving an area with the same demographics as France and Germany, and could otherwise support true high-speed rail.

But, peeling apart 50+ years of legislation, regulation, case law, and so on will not be easy, or painless.