Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes – Gothamist
Construction delays along York Avenue in NYC, lasting over 8 years due to unexpected gas and steam line discoveries, have inflated costs. Officials advocate for contracting reforms to enhance efficiency and reduce expenses.
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Construction crews in New York City have been struggling to install new water pipes and sewers along York Avenue for over eight years, a project initially planned to take just one year. The delays, now pushing the completion date to June 2025, have been attributed to unexpected discoveries of Con Edison gas and steam lines during excavation. This led to inflated costs from $8.5 million to an estimated $22.3 million. City officials, including Commissioner Thomas Foley, have highlighted the inefficiencies in managing municipal infrastructure projects, advocating for more flexibility in soliciting bids and adopting alternative contracting methods like "design-build" to enhance collaboration and prevent delays. They argue that the current "design-bid-build" method, which separates design and construction phases, hampers efficiency and increases costs. By pushing for contracting reforms, officials aim to streamline processes, reduce expenses, and expedite critical projects such as coastal resilience efforts against climate change impacts. The proposed changes seek to address systemic issues and improve the overall effectiveness of public works projects in the city.
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7 commentsThe area they chose to highlight typifies this: that part of the East Side uses the steam network for hospital disinfection, and had a massive, deadly, costly stream explosion within living memory[1].
The city absolutely does need better contracting processes. But the parks, MTA, public housing, schools, etc. are all better examples than the one they chose.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_York_City_steam_explo...
IMHO, all governments create a map of their infrasructure and require utilities to update it with as built information within 1 week of the work (if the work takes more than a week they must update weekly!). They should also be putting "as-planed" information in to this. When someone calls the "one call" they need to update existing infrastructure as found. And within 15 years they need to update the entire database.
Once the database is created (that is you call the one-call number a week in advance for your proposed project) contractors who encounter anything else are justified in cutting the pipes/wires since they are not used. When two projects are planned in the same area the designers are required to contact each other and make plans - they are encouraged to work together to save money (dig one hole...)
I realize finding something in the ground is hard. There needs to be a reasonable amount of tolerance for measurement errors and the earth moving (half a meter?). However that the above is hard isn't an excuse to not do it.
Why this box costs $4 million? Can someone explain?
A local Hofer (=Aldi) here can repave a whole parking lot and the access road in basically a weekend, while the same thing (parking lot) for a local government office can take a year or more, at approximately the same size.
Nowadays a MODERN a big apartments complex cost more than an equivalent of single families homes per unit (HVAC, seismic, fire-safety, ... costs) and while single family homes can evolve (a single owner, a single family to relocate for rebuilding when (not if) needed, a bit of ground to actually work around without creating traffic nightmares and so on) big condos, towers etc practically can't.
It's time to recalculate the narrative "being dense cost less". The reality is that cost much more and can only substantially evolve being totally rebuild, so practically can't substantially evolve. Big dense cities are needed only for finance capitalism, but we can't sustain them, nor humanly, nor technically nor environmentally.
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