All the car craziness tied together with a bow

As is discussed frequently on the Chainlink, between Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois, governments in this region can't even seem to muster the minimal funds needed to keep bike lanes painted and clear of dangerous debris. But they routinely manage to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars for road construction projects that are generally ill-conceived, mismanaged, poorly planned, riddled with enormous cost overruns, sprawl-promoting, and of real benefit only to contractors who are friends of politicians. As pathetic as the Navy Pier flyover has been and continues to be going into Year Seven (!!!), it can't compare in magnitude to the immense boondoggle that is the Jane Byrne Interchange project.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/transportation/ct-biz-jane-...

Somehow, since 2015 the cost estimate for that project has gone from $535.5 million to $796.5 million, and climbing ever more rapidly. Tentatively, the project will be completed in 2022 now, which we know it won't. Should I live that long, I will be most interested in seeing if it makes a single bit of difference. I doubt very much that it will in terms of congestion. 

I see that among the many floats in the excuse parade is the contention that everyone was blindsided by soil conditions on the site. Well, to the best of my knowledge, soil is not particularly elusive. It doesn't squirm out of your arms and escape. It was there even before the project began, right? Why, then, wasn't it fully taken into account in the initial planning? This is like the flyover writ large. What, there are structures in the way of the flyover? Who would have known?

It's the same as usual. Nickels for the beggars on bikes or walking and hundred dollar bills for anything with a gas or diesel engine. It's like the Talking Heads said -- we're on a road to nowhere. A really expensive road.