It took a year to build the Empire State Building, and 5 years to build the Hoover Dam yet current estimates for the Francis Scott Key bridge rebuild are near 10 years. Why is this? Have we regressed?
In: Engineering
To piggy back on a lot of others in this thread, construction projects today are more involved than just the building. New access routes and updates to other road infrastructure will follow the bridge, modernizing as they go. New utility connections plus I’m sure new collision mitigation structures.
Building is pretty flat. However there is a lot more paperwork that draws out the process than before.
There’s a difference between building versus analyzing, designing, and building. The analysis and design of the hover dam and empire State building was several more years.
They will not build the FSK in the same design as what fell
Don’t forget that for any large large building like that, only the outer shell and essential services have been built.
All of the interior fitouts are separate projects that take place separately, and will go on for years afterwards.
Health and safety, and the need to discuss every step with multiple pannels of people and community feedback takes months at each stage.
Emley Moor Mast fell down in 1969, in 2 years They designed and built the tallest freestanding structure in West Europe (still the tallest in the UK)
In 2018, they spent more than a year building a pre-manufactured modular temporary cable-stay mast in preparation for the transmitter to be switched out on the main tower, which also took longer than the original total build.
1. Because the maximum tolerable number of deaths during construction is 0, and this requires a lot more safety.
2. Because the maximum amount of early building failure is 0, and this requires a lot more double-checking and independent confirmation.
3. Because getting buildings done cheaper, given the above concerns, requires shopping around and exploiting a global market, which takes time.
4. Because you’re comparing total time, from “construction needed, how should we do it?” to “finished work ready to be used,” to numbers that only count from *breaking ground* to finished work.
5. Some amount of bureaucracy will be involved because this will likely be a government-funded project, which makes things take longer by its nature.
So, in brief? The comparison you’re making is flawed, and the things you’re comparing to had huge issues that would be absolutely unacceptable to modern Americans. Fixing those issues takes time.
I heard that it’s because there’s a lot more codes that need to be followed so there’s no injuries which makes the process a lot slower
The biggest reason that large infrastructure projects get slowed down is the National Environmental Policy Act.
The law, signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1969, requires environmental impact statement for all federally-funded infrastructure projects.
The reason that the law slows down projects is that it gives nearly anyone the right to sue to stop a project.
Sometimes it’s also weaponized as well. For example, a union might use sue to slow down a project because there’s not enough of their members working on the project.
Usually, the objections are not consolidated either — which means if five groups of people file suit, there are five different lawsuits to resolve.
After the National Environmental Policy Act, workplace safety is probably the next biggest slowdown. Large projects had a predicted and expected number of deaths. While they tracked the deaths fairly well, they likely had decent numbers of maimed and disabled workers as well. Most large projects now don’t have any deaths, maimed workers, or disabled workers.
We outsourced most of our industrial and manufacturing base to China since the 1990s. Over time we’ve lost the ability to make a lot of stuff. Many of those blue collar workers from then are now retired or dead due to drug OD after they lost their job to China.
From the 2001 – 2020 the US/UK loved China when offshoring to China allowed them to break their labor unions, spurring disinflation that allowed US/UK to run “deficits without tears” and maintain the status of US dollars as global reserve currency and US treasuries as global reserve asset thereby enabling bankers to benefit from the Cantillon effect of those deficits.
Study the reality of a completely deindustrialized economy due to Triffin’s dilemma and Dutch disease. The US’ main export is US dollars.
The cost of the eurodollar/petrodollar system from 1974 to present is that by having so many entities around the world hold dollar-denominated assets it artificially increases the purchasing power of the US dollar. The extra monetary premium reduces the US’ export competitiveness and gradually hollows out the US’ industrial base. To supply the world with the dollars it needs the US runs a perpetual trade deficit. The power granted to the reserve currency issuer is also over decades what begins to poison it and render it unfit to maintain its status.
Environmental reviews have been weaponized by opponents of anything to delay it. Another aspect is all the public review. Replacing the eastern span of the Bay Bridge took 24 years after the Lona Prieta earthquake in 1989 because people fought over the design, and whether or not there should be bike lanes, etc.
California High Speed Rail has been stalled by opponents, including dome rather apparent astro-turf opposition funded by those whose ox is getting gored – airlines and oil companies. Endless lawsuits and environmental reviews.
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