[heroiccocoa]

How much of this is because European salaries, land value, often pales in comparison to the US? It seems extremely unlikely to me that as Europeans we are 7x more efficient than the Americans, having witnessed the motivation of the construction workers building my nearby light rail transit...

[m_mueller]

I give you a counter example: Switzerland. Salaries and land easily on par, in many areas exceeding the US. And yet, public infrastructure projects are about the same as in EU - usually a bit late, roughly within budget and generally high quality.

[sschueller]

Also, a lot of infrastructure projects in Switzerland are done while keeping rail services running on that route. Most European countries shutdown service as it can cost a lot more and there is a safety risk.

[ffgjgf1]

> land value,

I’m not sure about that. Real estate in Western Europe isn’t really cheaper.

Also I doubt any of this is particularly related to individual construction workers, their motivation or lack thereof.