hey - Let's Hose CincinnatiCincinnati's streetcar infrastructure bids are in & all are higher than what the city & their engineering associates had budgeted.
The bids are for more than just tracks but they are coming in to the tune of $19.6M - $24.3M per mile. The city had budgeted $12.3 per mile.
In a report by Paul Weyerich & William Lind titled "Bring Back the Streetcars - A Conservative Vision of Tomorrow's Urban Transportation" a good price is about $10M per mile. They point out what other cities paid

• Portland - $12.4M/mile
• Tampa - $13.7M/mile
• Little Rock - $7.1M/mile
• San Pedro - $4M/mile

San Francisco paid $30M per mile but they were using granite, marble & planted palm trees along the route.
While the report is old, inflation in general can't account for the price difference as Portland's cost would come out to less than $16M today.
Is Cincinnati planning on palm trees? A car palace?
Or are the bids padded to take into account the threat of legal actions that might be pursued by rabid litigious elements of Hamilton County?