Miscellaneous News

9dashline

Captain
Registered Member
Lol yes and no. Paid more than Chinese ones, for sure. Pay kept up with inflation? Hell no.

Also the typical construction worker don't work very hard in North America. If you drive by a construction site, you will see most of them just standing around and drinking coffee or chatting. Maybe 1/4 of them actually working, the other 3/4 are having a safety chat, or planning etc, basically wasting time.
"teams meetings"
 

gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Engineers and construction workers in the US are paid a lot more?

In the case of New York the cost to build a tunnel isn't just about the cost of labour. The city is already riddled with all sorts of underground tunnels and pipes from over a century at least. Not all of those are documented. You also have to avoid buildings and things like that. This increases the cost to build anything underground substantially. Also a large part of New York is built on top of sand.

From my experience people working on jobs considered low paid in the US have really poor work motivation. They drag their feet to do anything. Heaven forbid if you pay someone minimum wage. They are doing you a favor by working for you.
 

FriedButter

Major
Registered Member
Engineers and construction workers in the US are paid a lot more?
The article has a lot of information.

We examined the cost drivers in the United States for transit tunnel projects. The cost breakdown in the United States are generally as follow:
  • 35% Soft Costs including owner cost, preconstruction costs including EIS/EA, feasibility studies, program management consultant, design consultant, construction management, right of way easement, permits, insurance, finance, bonding, etc.
  • 10% Third Party Costs including utility diversions, remedial work, and stakeholders’ commitments
  • 55% Construction Cost
Evaluating the Construction cost alone, the approximate breakdown is as follows:
  • Labor – 40% to 50%
  • Permanent material 15% to 18%
  • Construction material, temporary works, consumables, etc. – 10% to 12%
  • Contractor construction equipment, TBM, etc. – 18% to 20%
The construction cost represents slightly more than 50% of the overall program cost, while soft costs and stakeholders’ commitments at 45% are significantly higher in comparison with other types of major projects or similar projects in other global regions.

For New York specifically
One of the highest labor costs of tunnel construction workers is the Sandhogs in New York which can be as high as $110/hr and on an overtime basis, it can reach over two to three times this value. Their rates are higher than other tunnel workers in the country and significantly higher than European or Asian workers rates. Also, the number of workers assigned in the tunnel in New York is significantly more than other parts of the country and as much as 4 times more than tunnel workers assigned to comparable projects in Europe.
 

tygyg1111

Captain
Registered Member
They also pitch the same deal to Russia, that if Russia backstabs China then US will let it back in G7, drop the Ukraine and Nordstream thing, allow Russia into NATO etc etc
China, Russia and US in the same room.
US to Russia: Join us and we can screw over China together
US to China: Join us and we can screw over Russia together
The problem: China and Russia are standing right next to each other and can hear everything
 
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