[nigelcleland]

RE rapidly completed projects

A primary driver of the 'slowness' is a major focus upon safety in the workplace. Take a look back at the death rates per 1000 workers for some of the historical projects that people often like to point to and then look at a modern project.

The second element is that these safety elements are often enforced by regulation. For example, look at how much extra scaffolding is in use today during construction (which used to be ladders).

To directly look at corruption, this is an issue but not in a direct way. Corruption happens through the 'contractor ladder' where the primary contractor has a subcontractor who has a subcontractor who has a subcontractor. Repeat ad infinitum.

One of the primary reasons for this is the challenges in maintaining a large enough workflow to keep a standing workforce employed. It's difficult to justify paying expensive construction workers and engineers when they're not actually building anything.

Finally, tendering protocols are often quite naive and have been implemented to make something "least cost". This has led to a nightmare scenario of companies underquoting in order to win a tender, secure in the knowledge that a government will not leave a project half finished. To remedy this better contracts are required, for example, you can offer a recurring revenue stream (e.g. 20-30 years) to a company in return for a particular project. On the other hand, this can often lead to poorly build projects that last exactly 30 years.

[JProthero]

The construction and infrastructure boom in China over the past few decades suggests major projects can still be completed rapidly, even in spite of widespread corruption.

Political will can be an important driving force for pushing through major projects, but the most impressive feats of engineering are seen when there is substantial pent-up demand in an economy that can suddenly be supplied, usually due to social or technological change.

I think major projects could still be completed quickly in developed economies if the incentives were to align in the right way, but we don't see it often because the low-hanging fruit has already been picked.

India and Africa are probably the places to look to for rapidly completed major projects over the next few decades, and perhaps we could see significant industrial development in space at some point if the economics works out.

[nigelcleland]

Yes, and how many people have died during the construction and infrastructure boom in China/India/Africa. They're faster because they aren't as safety focused. For example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/09/07/c...

How much is unreported?

This isn't to say this doesn't happen in western countries but it is less common. A large number of deaths was also associated with the Qatar world cup for example.

Look at the public reports of engineering and manufacturing companies. How many of them have a "target zero" approach to safety and report the TIFR as a key KPI? I've known executives in engineering organisations to be fired for persistent safety breaches making them substantially more risk averse.

This all costs more money and takes more time and I would posit that if China/India/Africa become wealthier and more individualistic then their construction rates would also slow.