Manoel Dimech Bridge - 2.41cm per hour

I read with interest the details of the Manoel Dimech Bridge rehabilitation project. Apparently, the much needed project is planned to take 10 months of working 18-hour days, to complete a 130-metre stretch involving the pouring of 2,400 cubic metres of concrete.

For fun I did some math and fully admit the following does not incorporate all of the intricacies involved in replacing a bridge deck and fixing its support columns.

Nevertheless, the fun part. Assuming (unrealistically) that work carries on for 10 months at 30 days per month and 18 hours per day: 130 metres over 10 months works out to constructing 13 metres a month, approximately 43.3 centimetres per day, or 2.41 centimetres per hour (which is slightly less than the width of a 50 cent piece).

Living in Gzira and seeing the 50-metre stretch of barely drivable road on the hill beside my flat take the better part of five months to turn from a pothole-ridden obstacle course into an un-drivable, un-surfaced alternately muddy/dusty, further potholed rebuilding project that appears to have been left to finish itself, I truly wonder if the Manoel Dimech Bridge team is being overly optimistic in thinking they can advance at a pace of 50 cents per hour, so to speak (with tongue firmly planted in cheek).