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6 outrageous transportation boondoggles
The most wasteful, badly planned, extravagantly reckless examples of man's failed attempts to get somewhere quicker
From France’s Panama Canal debacle to this year’s Chinese high-speed train scandal, transportation projects seem to bring out the best/worst in civic overreach.
6. Alaska’s 'Road to Nowhere' (2006-2008)
Like a bad tattoo you got when you were high on life.
The dream: Build a bridge to replace the ferry linking the coastal city of Ketchikan (population 7,515) to its airport on Gravina Island.
The reality: Construction of the bridge was halted after pressure from citizens who deemed the project an unnecessary luxury and symbol of government waste.
Too bad by the time the idea was scrapped, the ink had already dried on the contract to build a US$25 million road leading to the bridge. Workers went ahead and built the road (completed in 2008), knowing that it would amount to an extravagant dead end.
Projected cost: US$400 million
Actual cost: US$26 million for the road (but no bridge)
Outcome: A hilarious photograph of a “road to nowhere” and a fiasco that became a minor issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign for Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Also on CNNGo: 24 of the world's greatest bridges
5. Melbourne’s Myki System (2005-present)
Painful to the touch.
The dream: Develop a high-tech, fare- and time-saving touch-card payment system to be used on Melbourne public trains, trams and buses. Contracted in 2005, the project should have been completed in 2007.
The reality: Poor planning, mismanagement, human error and computer errors resulted in huge delays and a maddeningly inconsistent system.
Getting Myki's bumbling reputation off to a terrible start, many new cards were mistakenly sent to dead people, among then, deceased military veterans as reported by The Herald Sun.
In 2010, Melbourne's Transport Ticketing Authority admitted it had been forced to recall more than 30,000 "smartcards."
On Myki’s first full day of operation, a number of cards failed to scan, resulting in hellish commuter lines. Other cards over- or under-charged users.
Computer glitches led to A$167,000 accidentally being deposited into three lucky commuters’ smartcard accounts.
Locals ended up losing money by being overcharged and paying taxes to support continuing upgrades to the system.
Projected cost: A$494 million
Actual cost: A$844 million
Outcome: Although the authorities have contemplated scrapping Myki altogether, for now the ticketing system is in operation and improvements are being slowly implemented.
Also on CNNGo: 10 greatest taxis of the world
