Hacker News Reader

Comment by vl | Hacker News Reader

However you slice it, the time it took for this project to complete is absurd. Project started in 2002, it took 20 years to plan this, then it took 3 years to build this low-tech bridge.

Even without looking at China and Middle East - in Texas they build entire highway intersection in a year.

View on HN

This bridge is not low tech. It utilizes a number of construction techniques and materials that weren't avaliable in 2002. It also spans a major freeway. It was never going to be cheap.

in Texas they build entire highway intersection in a year

California can and has rebuilt bridges in a weekend. And based on the TX Dept of Transportation website, construction on the Dallas High Five took 4 years from start to finish, after a decade of planning. And cost more than this bridge despite requiring less infrastructure to be constructed.

Morbidly curious, I'd love to see a full cost and time breakdown of these projects to understand exactly where the $100M and 3 years goes. How much of that is actual people wearing boots and hardhats, and how much of it is paperwork, and waiting for this inspector to inspect that thing and then unblock this other bureaucrat to stamp onto that other paper. I'd bet the actual amount of time and money spent actually building was a single digit percentage vs. the amount of time and money spent on process and paperwork and waiting for clerks to go through their 1,000 item backlog of forms to fill out and stamp.

Bridge in earthquake zone vs an intersection is a great comparison!

This is an interesting point, but I wish the delivery wasn't so snarky. There probably are a number of issue of specialization that I wonder about now; is building bridges in an earthquake zone a solved problem at this point, or does it require additional focus that could justify some of the time and money cost. Similarly, desert ground can move a surprisingly large amount through heat and rain cycles; are similar challenges faced in places like Arizona and Texas for more ground-based infrastructure?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com