and why does it take so long? I was around when the interstate highways system was built. In a few years 40 + thousands of miles high speed super highways were installed where there were no roads. I remember looking at the job sites. There were so many men it looked like ant hills, and specialized equipment and trucks moving continually. I moved to Lafayette in 2011. The few miles of the 52 bypass has been under construction on various sorts since then. I rarely see more than a few people on it. Sometimes 2 white hats in a truck and maybe a man on an excavator. Why isn't there dozens of men working on the various parts of the project anytime the sun shines? I am thinking there is a lot of dog and pony show involved in the scheduling. While the men who actually do the labor and machine operation have pay regulated by the hour, those bureaucrats who are planners, consultants, coordinators, supervisory and whatever other tasks, are paid by the month. It is not the labor pool slowing things down, but when people talk they like to blame the union workers. My nephew is an operator, he assures me there are large numbers of laid off men in his trade that want to work.
If you look at a blast furnace rebuild in a steel mill, a cat cracker in a refinery or a high rise in Chicago there are people from all trades doing their part simultaneously. As soon as a carpenter sets a form there is concrete being poured down the hole. When a level is beamed in there are electricians and pipefitters mounting stuff to it and the structural concrete guys making a floor happen. There are multiple supervisors being coordinated through a general contractor and project management. Of course those are funded by private money who's controllers are not willing to pay for delay. Nothing funded by private money takes years and years.
If you look at a blast furnace rebuild in a steel mill, a cat cracker in a refinery or a high rise in Chicago there are people from all trades doing their part simultaneously. As soon as a carpenter sets a form there is concrete being poured down the hole. When a level is beamed in there are electricians and pipefitters mounting stuff to it and the structural concrete guys making a floor happen. There are multiple supervisors being coordinated through a general contractor and project management. Of course those are funded by private money who's controllers are not willing to pay for delay. Nothing funded by private money takes years and years.
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