Even if the base concrete was pour first, TTC would never do this work in one day using the panel system and allowing for no concrete being pour.
One only has to watch the next intersection to be done to see how slow things take today as well who is really working.
Labour was cheap in the 20's to the point you were gone the next day if you couldn't do the work fast enough, as there was someone waiting for that person position. Today, a totally different picture and harder to find people to do the work in the first place, regardless how much the job pays.
People don't want to get their hands dirty and want the white collar jobs these days.
There are 5 things that have slowed down infrastructure development in this city. All can be fixed...just needs the political will.
1. EA process. The EA process was first conceived to ensure there was no environmental risk (think of oil spill). The process has been hijacked by NIMBY's and consultants to over-study projects which causes delay and engineering costs. Some estimate that the overall EA process is about 10% of a budget (which can be reduced to 2-5% if there were less road-blocks)
2. Goverment surcharge. The government puts up so many road blocks to private contractors that they sometimes charge a 25% nuisance fee. For example, to move a fire hydrant they will charge a resident $25,000....this includes the cost of a $500,000 fund in case of a problem. If the city reduced this or permitted a surety bond the fee would be reduced. And if they made the bidding process open (and not to "preferred vendors") it would reduce the cost.
3. Built in overrun percentage. For all major projects the government adds a 10-15% buffer. Then they use the gross number to see if they are on target. This is incorrect. They should be targeting the base number. Large construction companies target the base number on private deals and if the project is run efficently they can be under budget.
4. Union contacts. The closed shop creates a disinentive to quickly complete a job. This is due to the overtime surcharges and the lack of manual labourers. On most non-union deals workers are quite happy with overtime even at time or time and a half. Depending on the union contract it could be time and a half or double time which makes it uneconomical to run longer shifts. As well, a labourer costs $18/hr including WSIB in a non-union shop. They will carry stuff around, clean and make it easy for the specialists to work quicker. This cost could be easily double in a union shop.
5. Architecture. In the '50's when we wanted to build a school or subway the province did one architectural drawing. This is seen throughout Ontario is our schools. I can be in Ottawa, Toronto or Thunder Bay and have the same design for a school. This created reduced architectural fees, engineering fees and even construction fees. If I'm a contractor and I recently completed building a school I could build the second school quicker because it's the same thing I did last time. Same rational that in subdividisions there are a limited number of designs for houses. Trying to be unique is great but causes significant cost overages (it takes longer the first time you do things than the second).
Even though I talked about building the same rationale can apply to transit, roads and any infrastructure. I'm guessing the cost and time if government could figure out all of the above we could save 25% to 50% for both (cost and time).