Steel used to be cheaper because it has less mass versus concrete to carry the weight,so less materials used equates less cost,and the biggest advantage is you had longer distance between spans.
What has changed is,those big huge piles of coke laying about in Detroit ?
My guess is they were accumulated in anticipation of large infrastructure projects because they now mix it with the concrete which drives the price down.
Increased labor costs with steel verses concrete,with concrete now it is all prefabricated off site and then just set in place with cranes,also cutting the time it takes to build and over all labor.
New technology is allowing them to increase the span width which requires less supports.
Where I am at they are building,malls and large warehouses with large pre fabricated concrete walls,floor to roof.
One day you see a slab,2 days later the entire shell is done.
They built a elevated highway here from the port to the freeway,spans were 250’ on T style supports.
That’s why I am thinking if that concept was applied to rail,they would be just pouring the footing and the T even if it is 24” off of the ground or less they save the costs of having to lay rail beds which is a lot of excavation etc,but that would be a monorail system,but they could power through the rail so no need to run cables for the electric cars or third rail which is what most light rail is using.
Steel also has its complications,California had a few bridge spans built using Chinese steel,it was junk and the taxpayers had to pay to do it twice,that equates to a few billion.
Thats the thing with steel and looking for large quantities of it in order to recreate things that were more feasible in the past,you guys did have an advantage until the local steel mills shut down,now there is a increased transportation costs involved to have it brought in,it’s heavy and expensive to transport.
So the economical advantages of steel verses concrete have changed.
The cost per yard of concrete in Detroit is the same as it is in Tampa,but Detroit uses union labor to produce it,so really it is like 40% cheaper to produce it in Detroit then elsewhere because the raw materials are brought into the port.
We also have a port but the raw materials are brought in by rail which increases costs,so in theory you guys should have a lower cost per mile for light rail.
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