Fuss about slow underpass work won’t speed it up

Work at an underpass construction on Natalio Bacalso Avenue in Cebu City is being roundly criticized by both the public and public officials. They are one in saying the work is proceeding very slowly. With the project creating tremendous traffic gridlocks every day, and causing heavy losses in productivity and from missed opportunities, it is easy to understand the criticisms.

But much of the problem really has nothing to do with slow work. The critics are mere observers to what is going on. They do not know the actual plans of the builders. It is easy for kibitzers to say the construction workers should be working 24 hours daily seven days a week instead of the current way they are doing things but probably would work at the same pace if they switched places with the workers.

And that is because there is a timetable for such projects. It is not enough to just look at some people working and then conclude that they are working very slowly or are now working enough hours in a day. To be absolutely sure about the real pace of the work, one has to know when the project is expected to be finished. Also, one has to see whether the work being observed matches the progress schedules of the project.

Only when one has this crucial information can there be a fair criticism, if at all, of how a project is proceeding in time. In the absence of that, any and all criticism may be in vain if the work being criticized is actually proceeding on time, no matter how slow it may seem to casual observers who may know nothing about what they are criticizing.

In all likelihood, the problem may have everything to do with patience, or the lack of it. People who get inconvenienced in the things they normally do tend to get impatient. In the case of the underpass project, it is the traffic gridlocks that people suffer every day that is driving people nuts with impatience. But painful though it may be to offer this unsolicited advice, there is no other advice applicable in this mess other than to just grin and bear it.

And that is because there is nothing anyone can do anymore about the project. It has already started, which means it cannot be halted. The project will get finished eventually, hopefully according to schedule, to serve the public as it was meant to do. And if it cannot be finished on time, then there is a specific way to deal with it. In the meantime, it is better not to get even more stressed than we already are. Patience is needed as a virtue now more than ever.