[karthikb]

I use the example of publics works projects in San Francisco. There's a road called Van Ness that is going to have a bus rapid transit lane running down the middle of it. Should be really easy to do. But it's been about a decade and they're just hitting the last steps now. Why? Well, they needed to also upgrade the utilities below. But when they dug they found layer after layer of abandoned utilities, undocumented utilities, etc. So what should have been a simple operation dragged out for years because each action revealed something new.

The city now wants to add bike lanes to Market Street and is anticipating the same issues.

[louwrentius]

I think it doesn't convey any new information by calling those utilities technical debt.

The issue at hand is self-explanatory.