This was brought to light in that excellent NY Times piece several months back[0] about the relative cost of train line infrastructure in other countries. Even the ones with strong unions and first class living standards were able to get it done for a fraction of NYC estimates on even older urban topologies. Something is seriously rotten in American govt. spending, both in the public sector union agreements and private contracting oversight for why we seem to get so little for paying so much.
(1) Organized crime is heavily involved in large scale construction and doesn’t even have the ethos of doing a good job at it like in some other parts of the world. All it’s about is funneling money from the municipality or state to the criminal enterprise, and only minimal effort is put forth for the ostensible purpose of a project.
(2) There has been an almost century long propaganda campaign in the United States specifically to make people believe Government cannot actually work in any meaningful capacity, by interests that ultimately want to dismantle it and distribute the spoils among themselves.
This intensified massively starting in the 1990s after the American right wing saw what happened to the Soviet Union’s infrastructure during privatization. By systematically discrediting Government, they want to have the same thing happen via privatization.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/nyregion/new-york-subway-...
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