Remember when Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie canceled a long-planned train tunnel into New York, citing unforeseen costs in what was to be the country’s largest public works project?

Turns out he may have been exaggerating.

The New York Times reports today a new nonpartisan investigation found Christie was wrong when he said state transportation officials revised cost estimates to at least $11 billion and possibly more than $14 billion. In reality, the estimates weren’t changed in the years before Christie canceled the project and ranged from $9.5 billion to $12.4 billion. Christie also overstated — by billions — the share of the project New Jersey would have had to pay.

I bring it up in this space not because Christie and I went to the same high school (Go Lancers!) but because some have compared Honolulu’s rail project to the New York/New Jersey tunnel. Just last week, in fact, I got an email asking why Civil Beat didn’t include that project in its evaluation of other projects that started construction before federal funding guarantees, as Honolulu is set to do.

After killing the project, Christie shifted funds that had been earmarked for it to help him avoid raising taxes. In an interesting parallel, Ben Cayetano has said he’d use Honolulu’s rail money to pay for sewers, roads and other city infrastructure.

There’s a whole lot more to the Christie story. Read it: Report Disputes Christie’s Basis for Halting Tunnel

(Photo by Flickr user Hoboken Condos)