Self-study
There are two ways to manage an existing transportation infrastructure: continuous maintenance at adequate levels, and periodic radical reconstruction. ██████████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███████████████ ███ ███████ ██████████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ █████████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why are highways rarely maintained continuously when doing so is cheaper than rebuilding them periodically?
Objective
Any hypothesis resolving this discrepancy will state another difference between continuous maintenance and radical reconstruction that explains why continuous maintenance is rare. This difference will make continuous maintenance unattractive or unattainable despite its lower cost in the long run.
20.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ████████
a
Since different parts ██ ███ ██████████████ ██████████████ ███ ███ ██████████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██████████████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████████
This deepens the mystery. If radical reconstruction is more difficult than continuous maintenance, why is it more common?
b
When funds for ██████████████ ██████████████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████████
This is not relevant. It is not implied whether infrastructure bearing heavy traffic is more or less likely to receive funds for continuous maintenance.
c
If continuous maintenance ██ █████████ ██ ██████████████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██████████████ ████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████████
This deepens the mystery. If even sporadic maintenance delays the expensive radical reconstruction projects, even imperfect continuous maintenance is a worthwhile investment.
d
Radical reconstruction projects ████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████████
This does not explain why radical reconstruction projects are more common than continuous maintenance. It is not implied whether projects funded with current revenue are more or less favorable than those not funded with current revenue.
e
For long periods, ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████
This explains why continuous maintenance is so rare. Though cheaper in the long run, it is not perceived as urgent, and so receives a low priority.