Just reading
this article on the need to replace a tunnel in Maryland, and it hits all the points that make me question whether our society can truly be described as 'advanced'.
Quote:
|
The current tunnel, which was built by a bunch of guys with pickaxes and dynamite in the 1870s, took two years to complete. And though it’s outdated now, it has lasted 148 years, so it’s not like they did a terrible job. Somehow, despite all the technological developments that have completely transformed our lives since the 1870s, it now takes six times longer to build its replacement.
|
And it's going to cost $2.7 billion dollars. To build a two-mile tunnel.
And we have created machinery that can dig and concrete tunnels automatically.
I know engineering is hard, and the new tunnel is waterproof and has emergency exits built-in.
But it seems that like the housing bubble, the cost to build absolutely anything in the public sphere is somehow disconnected from reality.