Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun Belt
The interstate highway system of 47,856 miles cost $499 billion in 2016 dollars.
Almost 48,000 miles in all 50 states and in complex urban areas cost less than 500 billion dollars.
Latest estimate to connect SF to LA is $70 billion and is rising. It'll probably cost $100 billion to connect two cities within one state.
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To add the math:
500,000,000,000 / 48,000 = $10.4 million /mile (Interstate Highway)
70,000,000,000 / 800 (per Wiki) = $87.5 million /mile (California HSR)
USDOT has been funding that $500 Billion over 60 years, averaging $8+ Billion/year for the entire country.
CHSR projects to spend around $70 Billion over more than 10 years. If they built in within 10 years, they would average $7 Billion/year; if within 20 years, they would average $3.5 Billion/year; if within 40 years, they would average $1.75 Billion/year. That's using 2016 dollars, not 2046 dollars - and not including interests paid to people buying the government bonds some government would have to sell to raise this amount of cash over and beyond traditional government spending programs.
History of the federal tax on gasoline and other petroleum products:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/gastax.cfm