Quote:
Originally Posted by k1052
The largest (most expensive) hurdle is going to be the river crossing. The clearance of the existing rail bridge is too low to allow river traffic to clear when in the down position. They are either going to have to demo the existing structure and build a new bridge (Like they had to do at Kinzie) with higher clearance or go under the river.
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Yeah....$40-50 mil is way low....costs to procure the vehicles alone will probably be close to that much. The bridge would probably be another $50-100 million (since the old one has to be removed). Station facilities would likely run in the ballpark of $10 mil each for the easy ones, anything requiring excavation or significant utility relocation could be more. Then there's integration with the existing traffic control (signal) systems. Upgrades to maintenance facilities to deal with the new vehicles. Systemwide signage (don't scoff, this is expensive....several million $). Plus, much of the construction has to take place without interuption to the local surroundings....such mitigation factors (for noise, dust, and traffic impacts) will be expensive in their own right, not to mention make the project schedule longer and therefore more expensive. Including overhead costs for architectural services and construction management, I don't see how the thing could possibly come in under $200mil. Likely it would cost in the $300m range for BRT. LRT would be more because of the power delivery infrastructure and signalling costs; would probably require a new substation and of course higher-voltage utility lines.