premise: The estimated cost to widen both sides of 240 miles of the worlds busiest motorway has been priced at a figure higher than the annual gross domestic product (GDP) of one quarter of the worlds nations. It is a major construction project but with the same sum of money many of the worlds nations fund their entire annual government expenditure, including road building. The rate of inflation for raw materials and therefore for construction is running many times higher than general inflation and given this and the fact that such projects have a record of overrunning their estimates there must exist a real possibility that the scheme will cost even more than the estimate. Construction work has not yet started but the pre-construction phase has begun even if the decision to proceed with the project has still to be made.
hypothesis: An estimate is not a commitment to spend.