Originally Posted by
T250
A runway can easily cost up to £13bn, if you think of the amount of raw material needed (tarmac/concrete) which has to be of a certain strength and structure I would imagine considering tonnes of weight touching down constantly.
The other main cost is the labour required, to build a runway is a long time consuming task which is going to require a lot of man power so they are going to need paying!
Finally you have the cost of light fittings, I remember reading somewhere that there are tens of thousands of light bulbs on a runway so I wouldn't want to be the one fitting them all in!
Those of us from a construction background considered the cost of the proposed new Stansted runway in a thread here a while ago (search if you wish), and I calculated that the concrete required was being costed at some £7,000 per cubic metre. Compared to the actual cost of the stuff, which is typically about £60-70 per cubc metre, delivered. With such nonsenses in the costing, that's how a new runway ends up costing £13bn.
Regarding Grand New Airports miles from the city they serve, let's look at a recent example :
Montreal Mirabel. A 1970s project exactly like this one, built in the woods on a grand scale miles from the city. Shunned by passengers and by all airlines apart from those forced by law to use it. The day after the law was rescinded every carrier left for the old Dorval/Trudeau facility. Mirabel is now abandoned.