Building efficiency

Watching hundreds of volunteers put up a Jehovah's Witnesses Kingdom Hall is a study in efficiency. Cape Girardeau had an opportunity to see this amazing process unfold last week. On Wednesday morning the coordinated team of builders and support crews started with a concrete slab. By Sunday night, the building was basically completed.

The builders worked like a well-choreographed team, using methods that have been refined many times as other Kingdom Halls were erected around the country. The system was developed to replace do-it-yourself building programs that often took two years and left local members drained.

In an age when cost overruns and construction delays are the norm, it is refreshing to see such a streamlined process that works so well.

There's another example of how projects can be done quickly and efficiently up the road at the new I-55 interchange between Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

The Missouri Department of Transportation originally estimated that project, connecting Jackson's East Main Street with Cape Girardeau's yet-to-be-built LaSalle Avenue, would be completed sometime next summer. Both northbound and southbound lanes on the interstate were opened to traffic several days ago. Soon, East Main Street traffic will be able to use the interchange -- months before the anticipated completion date.

The contractor for the interchange is Dumey Contracting Inc. of Benton, Mo., whose crews are to be commended for keeping the disruption in interstate traffic to a minimum.

Both the new Kingdom Hall and the interchange project remind us that good planning and good oversight can lead to good results.