The pre-Katrina hurricane levee system is a lead contender for the worst public works project in American history.

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During Mr. Fox's administration, for instance, a handful of protesters with machetes successfully derailed the government's biggest public works project, a new Mexico City airport.

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The money to pay for the teachers or the extended unemployment comp or the public works project will, sooner or later, have to be extracted from the pockets of taxpayers.

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Almost 30m people have benefited from the government's chief public-works project, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

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The plan was accepted and implemented immediately as a massive public-works project employing armies of workers over the next 60 years.

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Last week Karnataka state claimed that by paying welfare direct to bank accounts it had cut some 2m ghost labourers from a rural public-works project.

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The project illustrates a new principle in public works: mitigation.

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