Why is the road construction process so lengthy?

December 14, 2006 5:45 PM

RoadRageFilter: So, seriously...why does it take so damn long to build a road?

Yeah, I get that it's hard, arduous work; but why does it take up to two years to do something like add an extra lane to a 10 mile stretch of highway? And of course, I'm not even including what was probably two years of project planning. What the fuck takes so long?

posted by AlliKat75 to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

Chatfilter? What specific problem are you trying to solve, and how will you recognize the solution you can use when you see it?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 5:51 PM on December 14, 2006

Not chatfilter—if the question's phrasing bothers you, reimagine it this way:

Why do roads take so long to construct? What factors contribute to the sometimes-lengthy process the average person observes/experiences as road construction?
posted by limeonaire at 5:55 PM on December 14, 2006

One big problem is that road builders, not surprisingly, work at about the rate they get paid. When governments have Byzantine contract administration procedures that dole out progress payments in dribs and drabs, there are many days where no work is accomplished. Also, you have weather issues, plus unavoidable time for compaction of the road bed, and prohibitions from doing certain kinds of work within certiain temperature ranges, or within so many days proximity to recent rains, etc.
posted by paulsc at 5:59 PM on December 14, 2006

Response by poster: Wow...I guess it's pedantic things like that which cause otherwise simple tasks to become such drawn-out undertakings.

Thank you lime. :-)
posted by AlliKat75 at 6:00 PM on December 14, 2006 [1 favorite]

Red tape. If the crews could actually work straight through until the job was done, without long delays for bureaucratic and legal shenanigans, it would all get done very quickly.
posted by Mark Doner at 6:00 PM on December 14, 2006