Rising Construction Costs Vex Public Projects Across New England

Abstract

The cost to replace two 1930s-era bridges spanning the Cape Cod Canal has almost doubled and could rise to nearly $4 billion. The cost of a major reworking of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, a number of new high school projects and a planned soccer stadium in Pawtucket. ‘They are making headlines’ says James Kirby, president and CEO of Commercial Construction Consulting in Boston. The costs are just one of a series of projects. The state and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers applied for $1.2- ‘You have to give the state credit – they have been getting into more detail in the project” he said. But construction inflation has not helped either.