Quote:
Originally Posted by bomberjet
The Cities in the process of the largest project ever (NEWPCC). Bowman pushed that forward. Which is not sexy, but is needed. It's also eating up all the money the City does have right now. Hence why nothing's happened on RT for example.
Gillingham will have trouble finding money for his road projects unless he postpones next phases of NEWPCC.
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If Route 90 and CPT Extension have a combined total of $1B, and the City needs to fund 1/3rd, the City "only" needs to find ~$330 million. If financed entirely with debt, that's roughly $25 million/yr in debt payments over 30 years. Yes, it's a lot but not impossible. The City could find portions of it in frontage levies or local/regional street reserves, or dedicate future property tax increases to it (a one-time 3.5% property tax increase would be enough to fund the debt payments).
The bigger question is could the city better spend that $330 million on other things that will have greater benefits to the community? I'd argue CPT is a waste since the extension isn't needed for a long time, but Route 90 is imperative - it's not just about widening (which is a fraction of the cost), it's about bridge renewal and sewer replacement which has to happen sooner or later, so it just makes sense to tack on road widening to an at-capacity road when the big projects need to happen anyways.