logoalt Hacker News

toast0 • today at 7:35 PM • 0 replies • view on HN

> Also amazing that somehow they can’t estimate the cost to within less than a $400 million difference

There's often tremendous variance in cost of construction materials over time. Especially in a time of high inflation and random tarrifs, project delays will result in changes in material prices and likely increases in labor costs.

Plus, demolition often involves an element of unknowns, especially with something like this, there's a good chance the as-built drawings don't reflect the actual conditions. There's got to be some wiggle room for that, too.

It does add up to pretty wild that high end is more than double the low end, but big projects are like that.