[ak217]

> Civil engineers don’t tell your mayor or your highway commission what to build, their only job is to figure out how it can be built.

I would disagree. The engineers absolutely steer the space of available solutions. Caltrans is a prime example, I have personally met Caltrans engineers who might as well have stepped out of a time machine from 1970. This absolutely influences the priorities of both the state and the cities that depends on the framework it sets up.

And yes city politics is separately a major problem.

[bsder]

> I have personally met Caltrans engineers who might as well have stepped out of a time machine from 1970.

This is the problem with outsourcing everything in the name of "efficiency".

If you don't actually do things in house, you don't know how to do them.

Everybody wants the US to manufacturer and build more until they have to cut a check.