> THE UPGRADED SYSTEM WILL GO ONLINE THIS SPRING, FIVE YEARS LATE AND AT LEAST $500M OVER BUDGET.

If they are over budget by half a billion, what was the original budget number?

I completely understand that building such system is complicated, not just in terms of technology but in mainly in terms of coordinating all the moving pieces involved. But at no point, I can fathom how you need to spend close to a billion dollars to implement it. As Milton Friedman famously said, you are least careful when you are spending other's money. (i.e. Government spending taxpayer's money)