Absurd Project Budgets for New York City's MTA

Two stories caught my attention in the NY Post today:

1) The MTA, with its windfall of $800M, is planning on spending $481M to build a platform over the West Side Hudson Rail Yards (where the Jets were going to build) and then sell the rights to developers for housing, commercial, office, etc. I laud the effort to invest in the city's infrastructure, but $481M? For a concrete platform? The way I see it, they are essentially spending half a billion dollars to build the first floor of a high-rise. I believe the parcel is about 1.2M square feet. That translates to $400/sf, more than double what you would pay per square foot for a nice house. With a kitchen, bathrooms, electricity, flooring and finishes. None of which are included in the concrete platform.

2) The MTA will announce a $300M contract today with Lockheed Martin to install 1,000 security cameras in the NYC subway. First of all, it took four years to get started on this? The money has been available since 2002. Sounds like a Pentagon procurement timetable. Secondly, $300M for 1,000 cameras? $300K/camera? Sure, they come with motion detectors and alarms, but how could you possibly figure out a way to spend $300K on a security camera? Let's see: the finest HD camera available in the world, a professional Sony, costs about $150K. OK, halfway there. Now the secure metal box it goes in: $25K. Software: $50K (per camera!). Ummm, $25K for wiring? Another $25K/camera for about 50 man-hours of installation labor at $400/hour plus $5,000 for materials (bolts, screws, etc.)? That leaves HQ about $25M for a few servers, alarms and monitors, maintenance and insurance (let's say 2,000 top-of-the-line 50" HD monitors at $5,000 each, 100 servers at $25,000 each, 1,000 alarm bells at $2,500 each, and $10M left over to keep the whole thing running and insured).

You can see how ridiculous my estimates are. But nobody seems to question these things…they are just taken for granted as the cost of doing government business. Just like the Big Dig in Boston. Don't even get me started on the federal transportation bill. When is someone going to expose the obvious fraud and waste in these civic projects?