Remarkable Efficiency in Road Construction
16Behold as a 70 meter tunnel is installed under a highway in just three days enabling the highway above to be closed after the morning rush hour Friday and reopened before rush hour on Monday!
A hearty well done to the Netherlands for showing up every road crew in America. Why are there orange signs up for months at a time for a comparatively simple resurfacing, Massachusetts?! You have some explaining to do!
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Because all of the crews here are too busy working overtime to hold up the shovels! Whatsa matta you? I’ve known that since I could drive…and continued to see it - every. single. day.
@dolphinone I’m not quite following you. They’re working overtime doing what, exactly?
@jbartus holding up all of the shovels at the work site. Ya know, by leaning on them all day.
@dolphinone oh… I feel dumb.
@jbartus Nah. I just didn’t explain the local joke very well. I know that it’s not work that I would be capable of doing, but it certainly seems like they , take their sweet time getting it done and most of the time “have” to go over the time agreement - and budget.
That was super captivating!
Construction: Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick two.
The contracts these days have performance and guarantee clauses. And contractors bid for the projects. So guess which of the three loses every time?
@narfcake well… not every time.
https://www.massdot.state.ma.us/highway/HighlightedProjects/93Fast14RapidBridgeReplacementProject.aspx
It actually, surprisingly, went very well. Makes you wonder why MassDOT can’t do the same every time.
@narfcake except here in Maine, we seem to lose out on three.
@dolphinone I love Maine. I spent a couple of weeks every summer growing up in Oakland, ME.
@dolphinone hey, if you’re from Maine that must mean we’ve found another Patriots fan @mfladd!
@mfladd Just right up the road. I like Maine too, for about three months out of the year.
@jbartus ummm…please don’t shoot me, but no. Football yes, but NE no.
@dolphinone I have no words…
@jbartus LOL I know, I know. But I always used to make fun of fair weathered fans…until I had to become one. Seriously though, I know “my” team sucks, but in my defense, I have been a fan since they were good.
@dolphinone hold on now… who are you calling a fair weathered fan?!
@jbartus others, others I promise!
@dolphinone
Okay
So… what organization do you support? Perhaps if Goodell continues to destroy the league they’ll merge with the Patriots and you can be a Patriots fan!
@jbartus Right? Doubtful though since the Dolphins don’t play well (ok, at all…but) in the cold.
@dolphinone wait a minute… you’re saying you’re a Dolphins fan living in New England? I sure hope you mean this guy:
Also… it’s in German… that’s awesome!
@jbartus I definitely mean that guy too, but yeah, the Miami Dolphins…started when I lived in Florida for a while, and like I said, they were good then and now it’s out of loyalty…and…well, I guess there is no and.
@dolphinone so wait… where are you originally from?
@jbartus Maine, but escape every chance I get. And didn’t like football before I was able to escape the first time.
@dolphinone I don’t know how I feel about this… so I will settle for posting this.
@jbartus Ok. points for that, but eeewwww.
@dolphinone what?
But do they have cool names like “The Big Dig”?
@Ignorant I mean the Big Dig was such a massive project I can understand the time it took, it’s the little stuff like a simple resurfacing that drives me crazy.
Months at a time? I’d be thrilled with that. The road project by our high school has been going for over three years. When my son was an in-coming freshman, they told us it would be four years. We thought they were kidding. They weren’t kidding.
@pitamuffin I have two words. Big Dig. Your three year projects are dead to me.
@pitamuffin Work on the highway near where I live was postponed due to budget cuts 10 years ago. I think 2029 was the new completion date.
@jbartus @narfcake I know your tales should make me feel better, but I’ll still get pissed off every time I’m stuck in the horrendous traffic by the school (which is often).
@pitamuffin how’s three decades strike you?
This is a good read for a 10,000 foot view of the Big Dig.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/12/29/years-later-did-big-dig-deliver/tSb8PIMS4QJUETsMpA7SpI/story.html
And pouring rain besides.
@SSteve yeah I saw that too, that was pretty remarkable IMHO.
Installing a pre-fab tunnel that goes half-way under the road. Mass could probably do that in a weekend, but why?
@G1 I dunno, why drag out a simple resurfacing job for several months at a whack?
It’s not quite that scale, but the CTA here in Chicago can replace bridges in 2 days (when they want to). This video is very close to my apartment:
@fibrs86 that’s the key isn’t it… when they want to. Why do they ever not want to?
@jbartus when they’re paid by the hour, with time and a half for overtime
@RedMartian yeah but there’s a solution to that, give em efficiency bonuses instead.
I like how the tunnel was slipping it’s way in there before digging was even done. Anxious lil fella.
Lots of manpower and equipment working non stop for 3 days. I wonder how much it cost compared to similar jobs spread out over a couple weeks.
@medz same man hour requirement, should cost the same. Less even given the lowered economic impact of having the road shut down and the like.