The Olympic Games aren’t just a collection of the greatest athletes on earth. They are a building, construction, and infrastructure undertaking of massive scale and expense. Before the games begin, countries and cities embark on a multibillion-dollar endeavor to ensure that buildings are erected, transportation networks expanded, and public services scaled up to meet the demand of millions of visitors.
As Los Angeles prepares to host the Summer Olympics in 2028, it’s allocating $1.4 billion to 28 major transportation and infrastructure projects throughout Los Angeles County in a project dubbed “Twenty-Eight by ‘28.” How these projects – and others associated with readying the city to host the Olympics – are completed has enormous implications for a host city after the games conclude and the visitors have gone home. They will either make the city more sustainable or entrenched in outdated, inefficient buildings and systems, more affordable or financially…