California’s government waste problem just got a poster child.
Red tape and bureaucratic coordination turned a simple infrastructure project into a multi-million dollar nightmare.
And one California county spent a staggering sum on a traffic light that should’ve cost a fraction.
A decade-long journey for one traffic signal
When Fresno County decided in 2018 to install a traffic light at the intersection of Fowler and Olive, nobody imagined it would become a textbook example of government inefficiency.¹
The county wanted the signal to improve safety at the dangerous intersection.
But because the light sat on the edge of city limits, Fresno’s approval was required before moving forward.
That’s when the nightmare began.
The county needed to build the light to meet city regulations, purchase the land, secure rights of way, buy equipment, and handle landscaping.
Try coordinating all that between two government entities that move at the speed of molasses.
Once the signal was finally installed, it still took nearly ten months before the city could flip the switch.
“All the infrastructure was not available until more recently,” Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig admitted. “We did see some poles that were going into the ground that seemed like they were there for many months before we saw the whole intersection fully materialize.”²
The poles sat in the ground for months while bureaucrats shuffled papers back and forth.
Think about that — a fully installed traffic light sitting dark for the better part of a year because the city and county couldn’t get their act together.
The final price tag? $2.4 million for a single traffic signal.
Private sector shows how it’s supposed to work
Here’s what makes this even more infuriating.
Just a mile and a half away, another traffic light installation at Temperance and McKinley avenues took only three months from ground-marking to activation.³
The difference? That project fell entirely within city limits and was managed by a private homebuilder.
Without layers of approval, things moved quickly.
Fresno residents paying attention could see both projects happening — one managed by government bureaucracy, one by private enterprise.
The contrast couldn’t be starker.
The private sector finished in three months what took the government entities nearly a year just to turn on.
This isn’t an isolated incident either — California’s infrastructure projects have become notorious for delays and cost overruns.
The California high-speed rail project started in 2008 with a $33.6 billion budget and 2020 completion date.⁴
Now it’s estimated to cost over $100 billion with no clear completion date.⁵
Just 119 miles of the planned 776-mile railroad have been completed after spending $13 billion.⁶
The pattern is unmistakable — California government projects consistently blow budgets and timelines.
Real people suffer from bureaucratic delays
Local business owner Hank Bocchini Jr., whose family owns the nearby Hank’s Swank Golf Course, said the dysfunctional intersection made daily life a gamble.
“There were times we couldn’t even leave. Now, traffic just flows smoother,” Bocchini explained.⁷
That’s the human cost of bureaucratic incompetence — business owners who can’t safely exit their own driveways.
The data backs up the urgent need for the signal.
From 2021 to 2023, intersection violations in Fresno County led to 55 deaths and 153 serious injuries.⁸
That’s 18 people killed and 51 badly hurt each year on average.
Fresno County leads California’s larger counties in red-light and intersection crashes.⁹
People died while bureaucrats delayed a traffic signal that sat fully installed but dark for ten months.
California’s infrastructure crisis continues
This traffic light debacle fits perfectly into California’s larger infrastructure failures.
The state has become synonymous with project delays, cost overruns, and bureaucratic dysfunction.
California recently delayed $1.125 billion in broadband infrastructure funding to address budget problems.¹⁰
Water and drought-related infrastructure projects saw $1.4 billion in cuts.¹¹
Meanwhile, the state keeps burning through taxpayer dollars on projects that never seem to finish.
President Trump and DOGE recently terminated $4 billion in unspent federal funding for California’s high-speed rail after 16 years of mismanagement.¹²
The Federal Railroad Administration finally pulled the plug on throwing good money after bad.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced a review of the disaster project that Trump called “the worst-managed project I think I’ve ever seen.”¹³
Research shows infrastructure projects face delays from inadequate planning, lack of coordination among stakeholders, labor shortages, and budget shortfalls.¹⁴
But California has turned these challenges into an art form.
The Golden State manages to combine all these failure modes into every major project.
Denmark can process wind farm permits in just over 10 days and complete entire offshore wind projects in 34 months.¹⁵
Other European nations take up to eight years for similar projects.
Michigan developed a publicly accessible dashboard for major infrastructure projects with coordinated permitting processes.¹⁶
California? Ten months to turn on a traffic light that’s already installed.
This $2.4 million traffic signal perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with California government.
Multiple layers of bureaucracy coordinate poorly, projects drag on for years, and costs spiral out of control.
Fresno residents now have a working traffic light at the intersection of Fowler and Olive.
It only took planning that started in 2018, $2.4 million, and nearly a year after installation to flip the switch.
The county now hands maintenance responsibilities to the city, adding another layer of bureaucratic handoffs.
Private enterprise showed it could install and activate a traffic light in three months.
Government proved it needs years and millions of dollars to accomplish the same task.
That’s the California model in action.
¹ Stephen Rivers, “It Took 10 Months And $2.4 Million To Turn On A Single Traffic Light,” Carscoops, October 26, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ “A Fix for America’s Infrastructure Paralysis,” Governing, February 14, 2025.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ “Is it time to step away from the California high-speed rail project?,” San Diego Union-Tribune, February 27, 2025.
⁷ Rivers, “It Took 10 Months And $2.4 Million To Turn On A Single Traffic Light.”
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ “The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions,” California Legislative Analyst’s Office, accessed October 27, 2025.
¹¹ “The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Resources and Environmental Protection,” California Legislative Analyst’s Office, accessed October 27, 2025.
¹² “This Week in Waste – July 18, 2025,” Citizens Against Government Waste, September 4, 2025.
¹³ “Is it time to step away from the California high-speed rail project?,” San Diego Union-Tribune.
¹⁴ “Delivering future-ready infrastructure on time and on budget,” Deloitte, July 11, 2025.
¹⁵ Ibid.
¹⁶ Ibid.
