Comments on: Why do highway projects take so long now?

By: Sharon O'Hara

Sharon O'Hara — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:40:29 +0000

Oddly enough it seemed to me some fifty-sixty years ago that the highway to the bridge would NEVER be ‘finished’…
I don’t know how many years it took for construction but as we often drove from Belfair – Gorst – Tacoma…the road seemed to be always torn up for most if not all – of my childhood.
Sharon O’Hara

By: Steve Erickson

Steve Erickson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:27:05 +0000

As with most projects there is also the time versus money aspect. The 35W bridge in Minneapolis was completed in just over one year but at a cost in the $250 million range. They worked 24/7 for close to a year. Granted, they did not need to keep the road open as it didn’t exist, but they did have to deal with the Minnesota winter. I do think that two years for the Burley-Ollala project is a bit long.

By: Chuck Hower

Chuck Hower — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:15:13 +0000

Rest assured, were some dire emergency to require that interchange to be built in a few months, it would get done on time. The more we add complexity to every aspect of life the longer it takes to get things done; and the sad part is that in many cases the added complexities are simply not needed. Road construction is not the only victim of these complexities; they pervade our lives and seem to become even more perplexing the more sophisticated technology becomes. Some day, society will simply implode upon itself, not much unlike the current turmoil in the financial markets.

By: Gary Reed

Gary Reed — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:48:48 +0000

Wow. Mr. Clarke certainly knows how to stack up the excuses. I’m going to guess that most of the additional
equirements are self-imposed, as with most safety rules. IOt’s also interesting he cites weather as a constraining factor, but has chosen to begin the project in the fall, rather than spring.