lelduderino t1_j9q6ftx wrote on February 23, 2023 at 7:57 PM

Reply to comment by Maxpowr9 in The MBTA and Green Line are mentioned: We Finally Know Why It Costs So Damn Much to Build New Subways in America by timboot

It's also not just a problem with design or project management firms.

The T, for many many years, has been understaffed in the trades for even small capital projects.

Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. they're all coming out of the same unions whether they're T employees or working for a contractor. Same group of people, same expertise. However, the ones who are T employees have much lower fully burdened costs per hour. The outside labor not only gets greater wages in their pocket (job security being part of the tradeoff for slightly lower base wages as a T employee), but those costs are then obviously marked up by whoever the contractor is.

Unfortunately, the optics of having low(er) publicly accessible direct payroll constantly wins out over the true cost of the labor.

Obviously the T doesn't need to have permanent staff to handle projects as large as the GLX, but smaller regular ongoing renovations, upgrades, etc. often end up costing the taxpayers 2-3x what they would cost if the T were properly staffed and managed for efficiency over optics.

michael_scarn_21 t1_j9qd04i wrote on February 23, 2023 at 8:38 PM

For some jobs it is worth hiring contractors as needed. These in house carpenters, plumbers and electricians etc all need benefits, substantial public sector pensions etc. Sure the T is paying more to hire these people but they're not on the hook for the retirement costs as well.

lelduderino t1_j9qfi48 wrote on February 23, 2023 at 8:53 PM

Pension contributions and other benefits are part of the fully burdened calculation on either side.

It costs the T substantially more, fully burdened, to hire outside tradespeople for a large number of regular day-to-day non-megaprojects, than if they were to staff up to handle maintenance and lower-scope capex (which would also mean staffing up enough to handle maintenance in the first place).