tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post8886861232624648774..comments2024-03-15T20:52:26.967-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Why are infrastructure projects so slow these days?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-54790286162914286842014-03-28T22:29:31.529-07:002014-03-28T22:29:31.529-07:00The big skyscraper i Dubai is not connected to a s...The big skyscraper i Dubai is not connected to a sewer line. Water has to be trucked in. Hong Kong skyscrapers in the financial district do not have heat.<br /><br />Modernity has a very think veneer in these places.mapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57295897288252489272014-03-27T15:59:58.429-07:002014-03-27T15:59:58.429-07:00But the comment about "Our civilization is de...<i>But the comment about "Our civilization is declining" was brilliant. I see it every day here in Hong Kong.</i><br /><br />Is that an every day saying in HK amongst the Chinese ('their' civilization declining) or that from your HK perspective you see 'our' western civilization declining?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-40153199606349148442014-03-27T11:39:21.006-07:002014-03-27T11:39:21.006-07:00Inclusiveness.
Everyone and his dog now needs to ...Inclusiveness.<br /><br />Everyone and his dog now needs to be included or at least consulted in the design process. God forbid we return to the dark ages, when the architect and engineer were gods. Isn't it curious, though, that the architects and engineers are still mostly white males?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48988462969778508632014-03-27T09:27:09.940-07:002014-03-27T09:27:09.940-07:00QUOTE: To give one tiny example, in Germany in Ma...QUOTE: To give one tiny example, in Germany in March of 1945, when the conclusion of the war was obvious, we went in and flattened the picturesque little walled medieval town of Rotenburg ob der Tauber, merely because Hitler hadn't surrendered yet. Those who tried to flee the bombing were met by fighter aircraft that strafed everything that moved on the roads - people, cars, cows, horses.<br /><br />--This is incorrect, as cursory research will show (Rotenburg is a major tourist attraction in any case). I propose that this anonymous be banned or suspended. <br /><br />I am calling up this relatively trivial example as symptomatic of the unpleasant American self-hate that I see here, especially when Russia or Japan come up. <br /><br />But the comment about "Our civilization is declining" was brilliant. I see it every day here in Hong Kong.Jerrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-192229461864599112014-03-27T05:18:14.235-07:002014-03-27T05:18:14.235-07:00My theory is that the construction industry is an ...My theory is that the construction industry is an unofficial unemployment scheme.<br /><br />I work in the Australian construction industry with a commercial role. I'd describe it as 2 blokes digging a hole and a bunch of people tendering, forecasting, costing, obtaining permits, writing reports and submitting these reports to board members, clients and authorities to be reviewed by separate groups of people.<br /><br />Ever wonder what all those people in office buildings do? <br /><br />With the percentage of people employed in actual production being so low, most bureaucratic work must be dealing with other bureaucracies ... or having coffee.<br /><br />Construction projects are usually funded by the government, indeed few others could afford the costs for major projects, and the cost structure for my industry rail - is particularly corpulent. <br /><br />Since this spending is often part of stimulus packages perhaps these employment creating inefficiencies are a feature and not a bug so far as the powers that be are concerned?<br /><br />The main problem with this Keynesian model is that sans circular waste we could probably realize another one of Keynes' visions - a 15 hour work week. Simonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15187912838961262542014-03-27T02:45:20.324-07:002014-03-27T02:45:20.324-07:00Love that 2nd avenue subway.
It goes back to Robe...Love that 2nd avenue subway.<br /><br />It goes back to Robert Moses vs Jane Jacobs. <br /><br />The Chinese aren't rocket scientists, but they built a lot of high speed trains in a few years.<br /><br />We can't even get a single line built in California. Ever. Because people have near absolute property rights. <br /><br />The only solution is optimize what you have. Freight in the US is incredible. You have logistics companies. Intermodal Containers. Great freight railroads. Pretty good highways. Much more fuel efficient semis. Pipelines. 40% of ton mile are rail, 30% truck, and the rest water and pipelines.<br /><br />All this sharing stuff ... Air B&B, the ride sharing things. <br /><br />Today sustainability is like the spotted owl of a generation ago. All this sharing is inherently more efficient and ergo sustainable. I think they will prevail against the Hotel and Taxi lobby. <br /><br />People might as well face it that we won't have any major new transportation infrastructure in the future. <br /><br />They do have 'Bus Rapid Transit' which is roughly an above ground subway. That would wok. <br /><br />Around where I live, it took them 3 years to widen an intersection. I guess you have the power company, Gas Company, Cable TV, sewers, drainage issues, temporary lanes, street lights, and then the road. With proper financial incentives and computing power, I don't see why it couldn't be done in 3 weeks, max. <br /><br />Bottom like being we better just decide to optimize what we have, cause we aren't building more. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52162205760438919062014-03-26T23:13:36.463-07:002014-03-26T23:13:36.463-07:00Most eloquent statement of the "reason why&qu...Most eloquent statement of the "reason why" from aka Vijay Prozac:<br /><br />"The four words that can save your life:<br /><b><br />Our civilization is declining.<br /></b><br />When your family members invent needless drama, your workplace is ruled by idiots, you can't drive across town because too many fools are causing obstructions, and your politicians are corrupt, don't kid yourself: your society is falling apart. It happens slowly, so people have been saying this for years, and it has been true but it has taken some time to happen. Of course, there are also idiots in any age who claim the sky is falling, but there are also idiots who claim that doing meth is good for you. The problem is idiots, not that their message automatically makes anyone who ever speaks it wrong.<br /><br />All the people you know are under great stress because (a) they subconsciously know this civilization is falling apart and (b) they lack the guts to confront it, because that means they have to stop being selfish and start a fight involving real sacrifice; a fight that isn't immediately obvious to everyone, like a war or natural disaster. Oops."<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5171750388843688762014-03-26T23:08:15.894-07:002014-03-26T23:08:15.894-07:00i'd be interested to see if the united states ...i'd be interested to see if the united states could build the interstate highway system from scratch beginning in 2014.<br /><br />just a thought experiment. imagine if the highways did not exist and had to be built starting today.<br /><br />i bet it couldn't be done.jodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-85531023684473458392014-03-26T23:03:42.308-07:002014-03-26T23:03:42.308-07:00"Why are infrastructure projects so slow thes..."Why are infrastructure projects so slow these days?"<br /><br />lawyers.<br /><br />most of the united states could not even be built today. lawyers would stop most of it from ever being constructed. the united states as it exists is basically a huge collection of grandfathered in infrastructure projects.<br /><br />if you really want to be astounded, realize that the united states built over 100 commercial nuclear reactors in about 25 years, and they generate about 20% of the country's electricity today. that's a rate of about 4 reactors per year. that could never, ever, EVER happen again. the US can barely even build 1 new reactor. as this fleet slowly ages out and is deactivated, enjoy fossil fuels or expensive wind and solar as replacements.<br /><br />china built a new EPR reactor in about 4 years.<br /><br />my dad's dad's dad worked on hoover dam. the days of america being that productive are over.jodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-53323092442215115632014-03-26T21:28:29.019-07:002014-03-26T21:28:29.019-07:00NYC is also working on the 2nd avenue subway line ...<i>NYC is also working on the 2nd avenue subway line - the first section (which is really just 4 stops) is expected to open 10 years after the project started.</i><br /><br />It has been in the planning stage since the 1920's. <br /><br /><i>Somewhere around 100 men died during the building of the Hoover Dam, which took 5 years. </i><br /><br />The first man to die and the last man to die were father and son.<br /><br />Peter<br /><br /><br />Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04266094188872421777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79700727794355600152014-03-26T21:01:49.096-07:002014-03-26T21:01:49.096-07:00"or to move some railroad tracks by terminati...<i>"or to move some railroad tracks by terminating commuter service for a summer because of the economic and social disruption it would cause."</i><br /><br />Yet NYC subway lines ARE often suspended for months at a time. Streets are frequently dug up as well. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-27823273125772078522014-03-26T19:37:18.518-07:002014-03-26T19:37:18.518-07:00Adding to the reasons stated above, big developmen...Adding to the reasons stated above, big development projects offer major opportunities for developers and other interested parties to make a fortune on ancillary projects, so competing interests confound reasonable plans if they're not getting a cut of the action. In the Bay Area it took more than 20 freaking years to replace the eastern span of the Bay Bridge after the Loma Prieta quake of 1989. Nearly a decade was lost during Willie Brown's two terms while he was trying to facilitate a sweet deal for developer friends on Treasure Island. Art Agnos and Frank Jordan were just ineffectual as I recall...Andrew Gilbertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-87604404109453249992014-03-26T18:50:52.905-07:002014-03-26T18:50:52.905-07:00>The reflexive blaming of unions doesn't ma...>The reflexive blaming of unions doesn't make any sense.<<br /><br />As the number of unions continues to shrink, condemnations of unionism grow. Just as denunciations of federal taxes are ubiquitous and ever more bitter even though federal taxes are at historically low levels. Just as the fewer whites are born, the more blame (for everything) is loaded on them. All our problems are because of unions, taxes, and honkeys. The people learned their lines 30 or 40 years ago and, along with the media, are sticking to the script like Norma Desmond.<br /><br />Btw, the Mexico City metro is pretty good to ride on, comparable to the NYC subway. I preferred the bus system but tried a dozen or so metro rides. They built Line 12 (16 miles) in 5 years (2007-12).Davidhttp://david-passingparade3.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-41295738656148022962014-03-26T17:22:40.533-07:002014-03-26T17:22:40.533-07:00Anon @ 2:46p
i doubt i will be the first isteve&#...Anon @ 2:46p<br /><br /><i>i doubt i will be the first isteve'r to mention it, but if you want to look at how far we've fallen in building infrastructure check out The Big Dig in Boston. It officially went from 1982 to 2007. It's almost unfathomable how it got that far, and we'll likely never know.</i><br /><br />I currently work on the East Side Access project, which is very similar in scope and scale to the Big Dig.<br /><br />These projects go on interminably because we drastically limit the possible logisitics to avoid disrupting everyday urban life, and the projects must be threaded through the existing infrastructure of utilities, roads, railroads, bridges and buildings without disruption. Its obviously considered unacceptable to relocate a water pipe by shutting off water service to an area for a month, or to move some railroad tracks by terminating commuter service for a summer because of the economic and social disruption it would cause.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-35561436344028888962014-03-26T17:19:19.735-07:002014-03-26T17:19:19.735-07:00Anon 9:27a
Note also that it took us only ~ 4 y t...Anon 9:27a<br /><br /><i>Note also that it took us only ~ 4 y to win that war, but today we can't conquer a bunch of Middle Eastern goat herders after 15 yrs.</i><br /><br />If we conducted war the same way today as we did World War II, I assure you that the surrender of our enemies would be near instantaneous given modern weaponry.<br /><br />In World War II, we indiscriminately bombed civilians with ever larger weapons right up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and actual warfare with the enemy armed forces was a total war conducted with a savage ferocity which would shock modern sensibilities because of the number of deaths it would cause both on our side and the enemy's.<br /><br />To give one tiny example, in Germany in March of 1945, when the conclusion of the war was obvious, we went in and flattened the picturesque little walled medieval town of Rotenburg ob der Tauber, merely because Hitler hadn't surrendered yet. Those who tried to flee the bombing were met by fighter aircraft that strafed everything that moved on the roads - people, cars, cows, horses.<br /><br />The problem with modern war is that we dont want to actually kill or offend anyone, because we don't believe we have any real enemies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45087485947154469162014-03-26T14:50:28.527-07:002014-03-26T14:50:28.527-07:00In Texas they seem to be able to build a toll road...In Texas they seem to be able to build a toll road in about 4 seconds flat. And they put an 85 mph speed limit on it. And there are zero humans at the toll booths (in fact, there are no toll booths) so that cost is gone, too... it's not a bad model.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-21110347023343635922014-03-26T14:50:04.426-07:002014-03-26T14:50:04.426-07:00others have mentioned it, but the "cost"...others have mentioned it, but the "cost" of death has gone up dramatically. Not only in real dollar terms, but also social opprobrium. The Panama Canal construction project killed give-or-take 100k people. There is NO WAY in 2014 we could have a public works/construction project that could kill even 1,000 people, let alone 100,000 people. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5616793231441780182014-03-26T14:46:20.645-07:002014-03-26T14:46:20.645-07:00i doubt i will be the first isteve'r to mentio...i doubt i will be the first isteve'r to mention it, but if you want to look at how far we've fallen in building infrastructure check out The Big Dig in Boston. It officially went from 1982 to 2007. It's almost unfathomable how it got that far, and we'll likely never know.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70024833518072993612014-03-26T14:43:10.343-07:002014-03-26T14:43:10.343-07:00Mike Rowe talks about dirty jobs and infrastructur...Mike Rowe talks about dirty jobs and infrastructure... Great, great realTalk(tm)...<br /><br />http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-8710956877718214922014-03-26T13:10:30.209-07:002014-03-26T13:10:30.209-07:00To get at the truth it would be worth looking at t...To get at the truth it would be worth looking at the progress made by the same firms in domestic and foreign markets - for instance, the brisk, successful building of the Hong Kong underground by the same British firms who took much longer over comparable projects at home.deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1978357717178344832014-03-26T12:39:57.652-07:002014-03-26T12:39:57.652-07:00@ Anon 3.22AM
Frank Black is a great musician@ Anon 3.22AM<br /><br />Frank Black is a great musicianAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-76342574297293215412014-03-26T11:50:41.474-07:002014-03-26T11:50:41.474-07:00IMO Anon 7:23 is right. The explanation is decade...IMO Anon 7:23 is right. The explanation is decadence. <br /><br />Shouldn't technology have dramatically DECREASED construction costs? It has decreased most other kinds of costs.<br /><br />Heavy equipment is much better today. Have you ever seen a picture of a steam shovel or a bulldozer from the 1930's? They are tiny -- the size of a Honda Pilot. That's because they couldn't build bigger, more powerful equipment back then, they didn't have the technology. <br /><br />In the 1930's you probably needed 4 machines to do the work of just 1 modern piece of heavy equipment. That means you needed 4 machine operators, more than 4 times as many service calls and spare parts (1930's equipment is much less reliable than current equipment), etc. <br /><br />We've also developed construction methods that are faster and more reliable than the ones used in the 1930's. For example, the beams in the Empire State Building were riveted. Today's beams are welded. Materials are also better today - steel, concrete, sealants, etc, everything has greater consistently and is more reliable. Hand tools are better. Inspection equipment is better. Everything is better.<br /><br />Yes, worker safety is more important today than it was back then. But shouldn't that be more than offset by the dramatic technological progress? Joe Schmoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15871134614183408024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-52777072708788932002014-03-26T11:19:23.607-07:002014-03-26T11:19:23.607-07:00Anyone ever ridden on the Moscow Metro? It's ...Anyone ever ridden on the Moscow Metro? It's pretty neat. I found it clean and efficient---a vastly better way to get around the city than surface roads when I was there in 1999. Plans were approved in 1932 and the first trains were running in 1935.<br /><br />Apparently the Soviets imported foreign technical specialists---Britons with experience on the London underground.<br /><br />Unexpected, jaw-dropping fact I learned? The general plan for the system was drawn up by . . . Lazar Kaganovich.Hunsdonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-88343088828728410372014-03-26T10:47:22.410-07:002014-03-26T10:47:22.410-07:00well here in texas the work crews will just tear u...well here in texas the work crews will just tear up things and leave them torn up for long periods of time, so I'd imagine that the projects take longer because the people working on them have figured out how to extract more money over time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-83682387549298629502014-03-26T10:24:37.727-07:002014-03-26T10:24:37.727-07:00It really is a downer. California public schools ...It really is a downer. California public schools lead my list: so cheap it's hard to tell the "permanent" buildings from the pre-fabs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com