I found a commonality of three markers that, together, seemed to be good predictors of big infrastructure's likelihood: a strong or charismatic president, a unified Congress and a powerful public consensus for the project. Under those criteria, there seemed little chance of a such a project in the next administration given conventional wisdom at the time. The actual election results were a major surprise to many — if not the majority voters in three key swing states — and now that Donald Trump has assumed office, they warrant another look at the possibility.