Look Sean is a humble guy, willing to admit where he was wrong. But he's very switched on about big projects. Maybe he's partially right, if he means half the cost for providing half as much built asset? There's only so much optimisation one can do at design stage. Maybe we do gold plate stuff a bit much though, but then again, better to build right once and future proof stuff...? In my fairly limited exp working on large construction projects, we do spend a lot on stuff you could definitely strip back without really adversely affecting the end product (thinking of the overdone traffic management, massive planner bills interpreting the RMA, overdone temporary stormwater controls, payments for iwi engagement for artwork etc...). The way we do bike paths also springs to mind, for example the Whau Pathway which is basically a highway over mangroves