I have heard horror stories about what all it takes to run a crane service in the Big Apple, from a guy who did so for a couple decades. All of the union and big city complications you can imagine, and then triple that and throw in some mob payoffs! That was the impression he gave me anyway.
You know the recent move of the shuttle through LA, and how long it took and how much it cost? Is there any doubt a good old boy house mover couldn't have done the job for a fraction of the cost and much quicker? Hell they probably set some kind or speed record getting that thing secured as fast as they did, and yeah, Jeff could have done it for a fraction of that, but he wasn't in the loop, I bet someone made a whole of dough over the whole fiasco.
That reminds me, a retired utility lineman buddy of mine says the big power companies love the tornadoes and hurricanes as they can then claim it was an act of god instead of their piss poor maintenance when the power goes out for weeks. Also, their insurance company then pays them to do the work they should have preemptively done on their own nickel!
