The United States has the unfortunate distinction of having some of the highest transportation infrastructure costs in the world. Urban rail costs in the United States are 50 percent higher than in Germany, double the costs of Norway, and nearly triple the costs of Sweden. Phase One of New York’s Second Avenue Subway was built at the eye-watering cost of $2.5 billion per mile, eight to twelve times the cost of similar projects in European countries. Phase Two is budgeted even higher, at $4 billion per mile. The exorbitant costs of rail construction in the United States mean that many such projects never get off the drawing board. In cities such as Austin, Atlanta, New York, and Philadelphia, enormous projected costs have resulted in rail projects being canceled or scaled back significantly. And it’s not only rail infrastructure. Road tunnels, highway bridges, and roadways are all more expensive to build in the United States than in major European countries…