MESA, Ariz. — Valley Metro has opened the latest extension of its light rail system, a 1.9-mile addition that adds two stations in Mesa.
With Saturday’s opening of the Gilbert Road extension, the transit agency now operates 28 miles of light rail in Mesa, Tempe, and Phoenix.
Work began on the $184 million extension in October 2016. The Arizona Republic reports that a study is under way for a further extension into Mesa. That study is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
It’s a bargain compared to the similar length section of border wall with Mexico that cost $1.7BN.
$90M/mile is not bad for a built up area.
And yes, when original streetcar and interurban systems were built there were often no underground utilities, and no paved roads so of course construction costs were less. People also died in construction accidents all the time.
We must take into account that a lot of the first generation electric trolley systems didn’t have to engineer their routes around highly developed existing infrastructure. Most of them didn’t even have deal with paved roadways.
Less than two miles for $184 million? Did it have to tunnel through a volcano? Hope they stop building there.
The people who built streetcar and trolley railroad in the last century must have turned over in their graves.