There are three factors to any project:
Time - Cost - Quality
Contractors can optimize any two but not all three...
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Deliver quick time and low cost but sacrifice quality.
Deliver quick time and high quality but sacrifice cost.
Deliver low cost and high quality but sacrifice time.
Buy some time, but go for high quality. I think that if they move to a new spillway, they can harden the present one so that it won’t tear up anything more. Then use the time that buys to build the new one.
It’s seemingly simple, but it really isn’t. There is tremendous force in the water and it has to be built to withstand that for decades.
I have heard that often over my career. You must have messed around in the building profession.
I have optimized all three together as a package for decades. But when a client then wants it cheaper and/or faster, quality will indeed take hit. Or if the client wants everything gold-plated, cost and/or time obviously go up.
The key is full disclosure to the client who wants to emphasize one or two of the factors what the hit will be on the other(s). And in competitive bidding situations the client had better have clear specs and get that disclosure from all bidders and question everything to enable an apples to apples comparison and fair selection.
The free market almost always and government almost never delivers
- lowest cost,
- best quality,
- minimum time.