Many people in Denver actually thought the recent economic meltdown would be good news for that city’s FasTracks megaproject because the downturn would reduce projected construction costs. It did, slightly, but (as the Antiplanner predicted) it reduced projected revenues even more.
Regional Transit District (RTD) officials promised voters that the 119-mile rail project would cost $4.7 billion in 2004. By 2008, cost projections had increased to $7.9 billion. But the 2009 projection is “only” $6.952 billion (see p. 39).
(For some reason, the Denver Post rounds this down to $6.9 billion, when it properly should be rounded to $7.0. I guess that’s what happens when a city loses one of its two daily papers.)
