Arlington County recently unveiled a bus stop that cost $1 million, sending journalists and citizens into an outrage. But,
says Brad McKee in
Landscape Architecture Magazine, did it really cost a cool million?
First off, it's not just a bus stop, McKee writes. It will eventually handle streetcar traffic as well.
The hard costs to build the stop were $574,000. Planning, design, fees, and so forth cost another $433,000, but those are, in theory, one-time fees (the county plans to build another 23 stops). Each one needs utilities to be relocated, lights to be installed, and more. And making the stop "rail-ready," says an architect in Portland, is a lot of work: "It involves high-voltage electrical, communications, and safety equipment."
For now, the remaining bus stops are on hold as Arlington County reevaluates the costs to the public.
Read more
here.