Seven Years for a BRT system in Charleston Area? This seems way to long to build out a BRT system. It should take on average 1-2 years.

Accelerate bus rapid transit

The Charleston area has pursued with varying degrees of urgency true mass transit to complement the existing CARTA bus system for decades. None has materialized. Now, a planned bus rapid transit (BRT) system connecting Summerville to downtown Charleston stands to change that. But it could take another seven years or so, assuming everything goes exactly according to schedule.

 Me, "I totally agree. Public transit projects take too long and cost too much. The U.S. used to be the leader in Monorails, High speed trains, Subways, street cars, etc. Now all th news about new piublic transit projectys are in other countries where they are constructing projects within a 2 or 3 years period. Here it takes 10 if you are lucky. And, the costs for overseas projects are way lower than in the U.S. Its a shame."

From article, (There is simply no reason it should take a decade to plan, permit and build a bus line from Summerville to Charleston.

the worst part is that such an absurdly long project timeline is the rule rather than the exception not just in Charleston but around the country, because the United States has lost its ability to build infrastructure cheaply and efficiently.

Labor wage laws, a misguided “Buy American” provision and exorbitant administrative costs all drive up the cost of infrastructure projects in the United States far beyond those in peer nations around the world. A mile of new subway in New York costs about 600 percent more than it does in Paris, for example.

And well-meaning but excessive permitting reviews add years to project schedules, further driving up costs in the process. A federally mandated environmental assessment for the planned bus rapid transit system is expected to tack another two years onto an already alarmingly long planning and construction timeline, for example.

It’s all incredibly inefficient, and the federal government is almost entirely to blame.

“The timeline itself is dictated at the federal level,” explained Doug Frate, director of intermodal and freight programs at the state Department of Transportation. “Across the country, there’s frustration. It’s the nature of project review and approval.”

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, which is spearheading the BRT project, is apparently moving things along as quickly as possible. But a mess of federal bureaucracy is holding things up.

The state’s congressional delegation should take action. President Donald Trump has promised to make infrastructure a priority, and Congress is expected to work on legislation sometime next year. Any proposal should include sensible regulatory reforms and changes that streamline permitting processes for mass transit.)

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