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Comment by lom | Hacker News Reader

Only 5 years is insane. It took 4 to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and this one is almost 3 times longer.

I think Golden Gate Bridge in 4 years is more impressive given that it was nearly 90 years ago. We didn't even have computers back then.

However, we could compare it to the Bay Bridge's Eastern span replacement, which took 11 years.

Are you in the US? It’s only in the US where construction has gotten slower over the decades. Everywhere else it’s gotten faster.

> It’s only in the US where construction has gotten slower over the decades. Everywhere else it’s gotten faster.

Germany would like a word with you. Most of Western Europe for that matter.

Are you sure that you aren’t just talking about either of: BER, Stuttgart 21 or Elbphilharmonie?

I recently tried to remember more projects that were terribly late and over budget and actually had difficulties finding any.

Should those overruns not count when it comes to determining if large infrastructure projects have gotten slower or faster?

Sure should they - but once not once per person thinking about the same thing. I think a huge problem is availability bias - these projects are/were reported on often because of the delays. The projects that work just fine get a whole lot less of attention.

How many large airports have been built in Germany in the last few decades? Sure one example isn't much but if that's one of the only examples...

U5 in Berlin came in so late that connecting the part they managed to finish became a whole second project.

In Koln a tunnel for the Stadtbahn caused a building to collapse and has delayed the full operation of the tunnel.

And they completely abandoned the extension further west for which the stations Turmstraße and Jungfernheide were prepared for - it’s now replaced by a Tram line that will arrive there no earlier than 2028

Actually the story is even more absurd: the "part they managed to finish" was originally built together with a car and long-distance rail tunnel in the late nineties. Then they were forced to finish it and operate it for a few years as a completely senseless 3-station line not connected to the rest of the network, because otherwise Berlin would have had to pay back the federal subsidies they received for building the original tunnel.

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