Driving through the Fraser Valley on the Trans-Canada Highway, I encountered several separate improvement projects. Vehicles would stop at one roadblock, resume travel, reach another, stop again, and then repeat the process. I wondered why highway engineers didn’t put larger crews to work in a single section, finish that part of the road, and then move on to the next.

Instead of being stopped five times over 50 kilometres, drivers might encounter only one major disruption. The same number of workers and pieces of equipment could be employed, so the projects should still be completed within the planned schedule, but with less inconvenience to commercial and personal travellers.

This video shows a resurfacing project completed in hours, not weeks or months. When China decides to move quickly, it can concentrate enormous resources on a task in ways never seen in North America. That capacity may help explain why China has become the world’s largest manufacturing economy and leading exporter of manufactured goods. When speed matters, China often mobilizes the resources needed to get the job done.

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Thanks to Facebook user Laurie Street for pointing me to this video.