I hated Christie for that. He lied about fear of overruns because The Big Dig in Boston was going on at the same time and had 200% cost overruns. Christie knew that. The Feds covered nearly all of it. I lived there from start to finish and the improvements it made in traffic and pollution was beyond imagination.

The one giant pain for commuters was that tolls went up on the Mass Pike(and still are)because the state was on the hook for a chunk of the overruns.

And somehow they are still a tiny fraction of Jersey. $7.50 to go the entire length of the Mass Pike. And in so so much better condition than the NJ Turnpike.

Still, Christie was witness to the Feds paying for most of the insane overruns on the project. Diverting that money was a total scam.