http://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/02/10/why-we-cant-have-nice-things-2/

Instead, what seems more consequential is the legal system for contracting and procurement. In both my analysis and that of Schleicher and Gordon, tunneling costs in common-law countries are higher, including not just the United States but also Britain and former British colonies such as Singapore, Bangladesh, and Australia. In those countries, agreements between public authorities and contractors are enforced by lawsuits, whereas in civil law jurisdictions such as France, Germany, and Japan, they are enforced by government regulations. This difference was highlighted by Manuel Melis Maynar, the former CEO of Madrid Metro, in an address to the Irish parliament:

Dublin can build its metro in 40 months for about €1 billion. It will depend. The people of Dublin have to live it, for without them it will not be done. It will be absolutely impossible, for the Irish common-law system is very complex. Ours, based on Roman law, is much simpler.

But even within the common-law world, there is substantial variation. At the lower end, Vancouver has built subway tunnels at average Continental European (civil law) costs, and after many delays, Dublin is likely to do the same. American cities, led by New York, are at the upper end. This has to do with more local legal problems. A Metropolitan Transportation Authority report from 2010 acknowledges that construction costs in New York are 3 to 6 times as high as in Europe, and mentions that the perceived litigation risk in New York is higher.

The legal situation in New York specifically is not just about common law and the threat of lawsuits, but also procurement rules. The specifications for major public works contracts are overexacting—supposedly to prevent dishonest contractors from stiffing the agency. But this creates more difficulty for contractors, who have less flexibility in their designs, and who have to contend with more red tape. Many choose not to bid on public projects at all and work only for the private sector. One of New York’s two recent subway extensions, the 7 extension to Hudson Yards, had just one bidder. The fewer bidders there are, the less competition there is, raising prices.

But even if procurement laws gave contractors more flexibility, in one way they remain constrained: Union work rules. While U.S. labor costs are not unusually high, labor productivity is unusually low in public-sector construction. This is especially bad in older cities with entrenched union interests; by contrast, costs in cities with newer subway systems, including Los Angeles and Seattle, are higher than the European average by only 50 to 100 percent, not by a factor of 5 to 10 as in New York. MTA Capital Construction head Michael Horodniceanu has observed that a certain task that in Madrid is done with nine workers requires twenty-four in New York due to union rules; I have been told by an anonymous source that New York consistently uses 2 to 3 times as many workers as major European cities. Megaprojects, a textbook by the American Council of Engineering Companies, states:

As a result of existing union agreements covering the eastern seaboard area of the United States, underground construction employs approximately four times the number of personnel as in similar jobs in Asia, Australia, or Europe.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3552900&forum_id=2#32827802)

US has 1000 problems with infrastructure including GOP just not giving a furk if the US looks liek brazil

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3552900&forum_id=2#45583016)