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Where did you get that "statistic"?
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I don't remember now, but there was some criticism a while back about how Portland's light rail construction costs have ballooned well past any sort of inflation or material cost increases... think about the $214 million for 15 miles in 1986 versus $350 million for 6 miles in 2004 or $575 for 8 miles in 2009: which translates into a 400-475% cost increase in around 20 years (the consumer price index increased only 47.5% from 1986-2004 and 68% from 1986-2009, equates to light rail construction jumping 6-8 times the inflation rate). I wish I could find the original report which stated that overall transit construction costs rose 3-4 times higher than other infrastructure construction costs during the same time span.
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Is it really a "planned" widening, or are they reserving the ability to widen at some future year?
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Yes and yes... it looks like ODOT wanted to widen McLoughlin years ago but the project got shelved for whatever reason (I didn't ask), so currently it is a reserved alignment for a future time.