Passage: Critics of the new transit plan have called it reckless, pointing to the city's history of half-finished projects and ballooning budgets. The plan's chief engineer does not dispute that record. Indeed, she opens nearly every public meeting by reciting it in detail, naming the abandoned light-rail line and the over-budget bridge that preceded her tenure. Only after this recital does she present her own proposal, which she insists differs precisely because it assumes such failures will recur and builds in safeguards against them. Skeptics leave her presentations uncertain whether they have heard a defense or a confession.