This - I've looked at a number of projects. There's some kind of tipping point with public / govt infra projects at which point they just go crazy in terms of cost, it's like the make work / interia / rent extractors just tip out the get things done folks at some point.

NY / SF, even germany for a bit with Berlin's airport. I look at what they did in the past (huge railroad bridges in 100 days) and even now with private money (Tesla in germany is going up fast and sports stadiums go up like weeds despite their scale) the contrasts are remarkable.

Space Launch System is $20B with not a single flight. SpaceX comes along, get's no $1B/year base, get's paid a fraction of the "big players" - and has done 80+ F9 launches.

Also - success academies in NY seems to have some pretty amazing results relative to local schools. I realize some confounding factors, but if I was a parent in NY - that would be the choice if I lived in an area they served.