It took three-and-a-half years and $96.4 million ($1.1 billion today) to build the Mackinac Bridge in the 1950s. It’s been five years since the $500 million plan to build the Great Lakes Tunnel was first approved, and we’re still waiting for ground to be broken.

Why? Well, it’s a case study in why it is so expensive to build major projects in the United States.

The Great Lakes Tunnel is a replacement for the current Line 5 pipeline. It will sit from 60 to 375 feet below the lakebed and move oil, gas and fiber lines. It is undoubtedly safer for the Great Lakes than the current pipeline, but bureaucratic delays and environmental lawsuits stemming from opposition by the governor and attorney general have continued to delay the project.

An agreement to build the tunnel was reached in 2018. After Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel was elected, she filed a lawsuit in 2019 to shut down Line 5 and stop the tunnel. The state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy approved the tunnel permit in 2021, and the Michigan Public Service Commission approved it in late 2023.

The legal delays from Nessel and Whitmer surely cost the project extra legal fees. The time spent fighting court battles may cost people even more because the costs for large projects have exploded in the United States. It’s become prohibitively difficult and expensive to build major projects. Highways, mass transit, tunnels, bus stations, bridges, ports, nuclear plants: All have exploded in costs, way beyond the increases in most peer countries, and with little evidence of environmental and safety progress.

Politicians, including the Biden and Whitmer administrations, have talked about wanting to make reforms and tackle major problems. But they have made little progress. Lawmakers need to make it much easier to approve and move forward with major projects to make it easier for America to move forward.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.