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Texas Highwayman Pages > San Antonio Freeway
System > Editorials > Why No Work
Being Done
November 2nd, 2007
First, my standard
disclaimer for the record: I am not affiliated with TxDOT, the RMA, or any
road-building agency, nor am I affiliated with any contractor or supplier
involved with road construction, design, engineering, or the like, nor am I affiliated with any Chamber of Commerce
or other civic organization. In short, I am solely representing myself and my
words below are my own opinion based on decades of interest,
observation, research, and formal education in roads, traffic, and
transportation. I am presently a systems
administrator for a university and hold a BA in urban and regional
planning.
One of the most common recurring gripes I
hear about road construction is that it seems like there's never any
work being done on projects. However, this is generally not the case.
Oftentimes, there is work being done that you simply don't see,
typically underground or off-site drainage or other preparatory work.
That said, there are times when work sites are dormant as the result of a number of
legitimate circumstances:
- Inclement weather or its
after-effects
- Subsequent work cannot
be started until concrete has cured
- The contractor is
waiting on a utility adjustment or material delivery
- The workers worked the
previous night and, by law, must be given time off to rest
- Something was
discovered underground that wasn't in the plans and the contractor has to wait
for a change order to be prepared and/or perform additional work to
remedy it (this one happens quite often)
Why aren't projects
worked-on 24 hours a day?
Some mega-projects are worked-on 24 hours a day (e.g. the 410/281 interchange); however, most
are not. Doing so would require three shifts of workers, which
would increase the labor cost of the project by at least three-fold
(usually more since workers who work at night often are entitled to
shift differential pay.) This would drive-up the overall cost of
construction not just on those projects, but also citywide since hiring
that many workers would create a severe labor shortage, especially in
the already-tight San Antonio market. Given the existing highway
funding shortfall and the reluctance of the public (that's you) to
accept higher taxes and/or tolls, how can you want to increase the cost
of construction projects any more?
Why not finish one project
before starting another?
If highway construction were done one project at a time, it would take
even longer to get things done. First of all, what would be
the boundaries of the "one-project-at-a-time" zone? A specific
freeway, a section of the city, the whole city, the county, the metro
area...? OK, let's say it's Bexar County. Do you know how
many projects there are in Bexar County? Even working
non-stop, the 281/410 interchange is going to take a bit over
three years to build. Can you image how long it would
take to build the half-dozen or so large projects currently underway in
Bexar County if we had to wait three to five years for each one to be
done before we could start the next, not to mention the plethora of
smaller projects? Besides being impractical, that's just plain
dumb. Projects are not being delayed because there is a shortage
of workers*; if that was the case, then the one-project-at-a-time idea
might make sense. Large construction projects simply take time to
build. They are complex, require an enormous amount of work, and
all the while, traffic still has to be able to move through the area.
It's like trying to re-carpet your house while still using the
furniture-- it's just going to take more time as a result. That's
just reality. On top of all that, construction costs increase
every year; waiting years to build projects just increases the cost to
build them.
* (Despite what many people
believe, there's not just one team of workers that goes around to all
the projects one at a time. While some contractors do shift
workers between their projects occasionally as needed, especially when a
project has to be dormant for a while because of one of the reasons
mentioned above, that is not a general nor continuous practice.)
Why doesn't the state fine
contractors who take too long to finish a project?
Actually, they do. Nearly every construction contract let by TxDOT
includes a timeline to finish the project and a provision for TxDOT to
assess "liquidated damages" (i.e. a monetary penalty) if that timeline
is not met.
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