Originally Posted by
honcho
Read about the opening of a short segment of recently opened multi purpose trail in Northern Virginia that cost $2.4 million. I don't know if there were any land acquisition costs and I haven't seen seen or traversed the trail so can't comment on expensive features other than the 90 foot long prefabricated bridge that was probably a big chunk of the cost. Still, at over $1000 per foot, it seems like a lot of money. I like new infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians but the price tag is high.
https://www.insidenova.com/news/fair...13ba24db2.html
That's not unreasonable for a long bridge. Cost of a 10 foot wide bike path is around $150,000 per mile. The cost of building a mile of a new 6 lane highway is $7,000,000 in a rural area or about a $1.1 million per mile. That jumps to $11 million per mile in an urban setting.
The bike path seems like a bargain, especially considering that the bike path and bridge will be mostly maintenance free for the next 40 years. That 4 lane highway will need major renovations in 5 to 10 years at about $1 million per mile per lane