...“We find the tunnel is not economically justified because the costs of the tunnel are 2.5 times larger than its benefits,” stated UOP in its report, released July 12. “Benefit-cost analysis is an essential and normal part of assessment and planning of large infrastructure projects such as the $13 billion water conveyance tunnel proposal, but has not been part of the BDCP.”
Perhaps the members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, who rejected Assembly member Bill Berryhill’s bill calling for an independent cost-benefit analysis of the tunnel project, were afraid of a similar result if the bill, AB 2421, had ever become law.
“This report fills an important information gap for policy makers and water ratepayers who will ultimately bear the multi-billion costs of the project,” the UOP study stated. “The results can be easily updated if changing plans generate updated estimates of benefits and costs, but the gap between benefits and costs is so large that it seems unlikely that the tunnels could be economically justified in any future scenario.”
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