Is road construction really as inefficient as it appears?

[johnjohn320]

I mean it as a sincere question, not trying to be a jerk about a line of work that I don't know anything about. But I'm looking out my office window at the road that's closed down while they fill in potholes and do some other stuff. Right now, I'm seeing 4 guys fill in a hole with some hot asphalt. What I mean by that is, I see one guy shoveling the asphalt onto the hole, then he stands and waits while a 2nd guy uses his shovel to flatten it out and pack it in. There's a 3rd guy standing next to them, leaning on his shovel and watching. A 4th guy is leaning on some equipment, also watching.

Of course, everyone's jobs involve small breaks and chatting on the job, but I wouldn't be making a point of this if it weren't so common a sight in every road construction project I see around here.

So, sincerely, am I just not understanding the work, and it really does take so many people "monitoring" the progress of any small task? Are there major safety precautions at play? Something...? Or is this just why Japan's roads get fixed so much faster than ours do?

 

[ShawnD1]

Manual work gets tiring so they alternate working and screwing around. It is infeasible to do manual labor for 12 hours with just one or two breaks.

I did road construction 1 summer.

 

[Dulanic]

Manual work gets tiring so they alternate working and screwing around. It is infeasible to do manual labor for 12 hours with just one or two breaks.

I did road construction 1 summer.

This. It takes the hulk to do twelve hours of hard manual labor. They need to switch up jobs etc. not dating they are efficient either tho.

 

[olds]

How is the job set up? Is there a lane closure? It may have taken 4 people to set it up.

 

[sactoking]

Plus, it's highly likely that at least one of those 4 people is a site supervisor/project manager/engineer/etc who legally has to be on-site but isn't paid to do hard labor.

 

[Krynj]

How many construction workers does it take to change a light bulb?

Seven.

One to change the lightbulb, and six to stand around and watch.

 

[olds]

How many construction workers does it take to change a light bulb?

Seven.

One to change the lightbulb, and six to stand around and watch.

Don't quit your day job.

 

[OCGuy]

fail

 

[Rumpltzer]

A dude digging a hole and three guys watching. How is that inefficient?

Seriously, it's not like 12 solid hours of putting asphalt into holes unless all of the holes and the asphalt happen to be lined up so you don't need to drive to them... and if they were, they'd have brought a machine to do the work.

 

[lxskllr]

Everyone has a task that needs to be done, but not at the same time. Road construction is highly efficient, especially on larger projects. A lot of thought and resources go into streamlining the process to minimize traffic hassles, and to speed completion.

 

[ShawnD1]

Everyone has a task that needs to be done, but not at the same time. Road construction is highly efficient, especially on larger projects. A lot of thought and resources go into streamlining the process to minimize traffic hassles, and to speed completion.

Depends where you live. In my city and province, construction is all private. Companies bid on city contracts and the companies put a lot of work into making sure it goes as fast as cheap as possible.
In the next province over, it's a total government clusterfuck. The roads are never fixed. They'll put down the bottom layer of a road then they'll leave it for a couple weeks. By the time they get back, the thing is totally destroyed by cars and the weather, so then they need to redo the bottom layer. Then maybe they'll complete the thing. If there's time, they'll put a shoulder on the highway. Because there's no bid process or any motivation to lower the cost or increase the speed, it gets disgustingly expensive and slow as hell.

 

[SMOGZINN]

How hot is it outside where you are at?
That asphalt is heated to make it pliable, so it is probably 10 degrees hotter where they are standing. They take turns because they have to.

 

[lxskllr]

Depends where you live. In my city and province, construction is all private. Companies bid on city contracts and the companies put a lot of work into making sure it goes as fast as cheap as possible.

Yea, I could see that. Pretty much everything contracted out here. Simple jobs like throwing some cold patch in a hole, the government will do in-house, but that's about it.

 

[lxskllr]

How hot is it outside where you are at?
That asphalt is heated to make it pliable, so it is probably 10 degrees hotter where they are standing. They take turns because they have to.

10 degrees is conservative. Add in the petroleum fumes, and it's just about intolerable. I couldn't work on a paving crew. It's hard, filthy, hot work.

 

[BudAshes]

Ussually its 3 white guys supervising one Mexican guy doing the labor around here.

 

[BoomerD]

I haven't kept up with asphalt requirements in many years.

I know there have been some changes in the asphaltic oil compositions to allow for lower-temp mixes, but Hot Mix Asphalt usually leaves the batch plant between 300 and 350 degrees, and should be laid down before it cools to 250 degrees.
IIRC, even warm-mix asphalt should be laid down before it cools to 185F. I'm sure Olds has more current info on the procedures.

 

[Brigandier]

johnjohn320 want a cracker?

 

[Imp]

Maybe it's one crew that was put together to be able to do a variety of stuff, this one was just smaller.

 

[mrjminer]

Depends where you live. In my city and province, construction is all private. Companies bid on city contracts and the companies put a lot of work into making sure it goes as fast as cheap as possible.
In the next province over, it's a total government clusterfuck. The roads are never fixed. They'll put down the bottom layer of a road then they'll leave it for a couple weeks. By the time they get back, the thing is totally destroyed by cars and the weather, so then they need to redo the bottom layer. Then maybe they'll complete the thing. If there's time, they'll put a shoulder on the highway. Because there's no bid process or any motivation to lower the cost or increase the speed, it gets disgustingly expensive and slow as hell.

Do you live in Illinois, too? You just described my city!

It's amazing how terrible the road crews are here. I mean, astounding. Here's a typical example (and an actual one that I remember from within the past year):

There's a stretch of about 100-200 meters that doesn't have any problems (ie: no potholes, correct width, lines are present, shoulder is present) and doesn't need any repairs. About 14 months ago, a road crew set up two signs along this particular stretch of road about upcoming construction. One week later, the speed limit in the area is lowered from 45 to 30, and it's made a one-lane road for the middle 100 meters via cones/roadblock.

Five months later, the road crew shows up and begins working... for the first time. They do some work on the shoulder (don't know what) for about a week in one 50-100 meter stretch on one side of the road. Then, they stop working.

Six months after that, there are some bulldozers out on the side of the shoulder, and the road crew is ripping up one patch (don't know what this is technically called... just like one square block) of road. They replace it within the same week, make the road two lanes again, then disappear, but their equipment is all still there. Note that the speed limit is still at 30 MPH.

Within the past three months, I saw about 6 or 7 guys out there ripping up another "patch" of road about one day every two-three weeks. Now, all of the equipment is gone, with the exception of their speed limit signs and shit, but I haven't seen them out there in a couple of weeks.

 

[ShawnD1]

Ussually its 3 white guys supervising one Mexican guy doing the labor around here.

The guys you think are mexican are actually white guys. My crew was all white people but our skin was darker than a Jersey Shore parody.

 

[kinev]

Simple answer...

 

[Crusty]

fail

LOL. Fucking 10/10. :thumbsup:

 

[mmntech]

Simple answer...

I used to work in that industry, and that nails it bang on. My dad owned a construction business. A reputable one. Yes, they exist.

There's a few reasons why work takes so long.
-Some companies are fronts for the mob to launder money (yes, they exist) so they care little about cost overrun. They deliberately take their time.
-Some companies take on too much work but won't hire more employees so they can keep costs down. Employees are spread too thin. You can't run construction as a volume based business. You will loose money.
-Same as above but company uses funds from one job to pay for another. It's not exactly legal but they get away with it. When you see construction jobs mothballed for a while then work suddenly start back up under the same company, this is likely what's happening.
-Mr. Government starts making demands and the wheels of bureaucracy slow the job to a snail's pace.
-Government engineers screw something up and it has to be corrected. Goes with the above. Sometimes these errors are pretty serious, like selecting inappropriate materials and requiring the job to be redone in mid progress.
-The construction company screws something up and it has to be redone.
-The construction company is incompetent and doesn't know what they're doing. I've seen road builders try to take on big civil engineering projects thinking it's the same. It's not.

That's why my dad retired. Got fed up of the bullshit. Says nobody has pride in their work anymore.

 

[busydude]

8/10

 

[RedCOMET]

Simple answer...

And Just think, if all those guys weren't around, the trainee would be doing the work and Jose would be "supervising."