An MTA inspector general has determined that LIRR construction crews assigned to various projects routinely reported to work late, left early, dragged out jobs by using manual tools rather than power machines, and generally cost the agency lots of money. On one particular job, workers took 115 days to repair a staircase at a Great Neck train station — three times longer than it was expected to take and at a labor cost of $261,000 instead of $98,000, according to the Daily News. Some of the crew there collected time and a half by working through lunch, though LIRR managers conceded workers would rarely have had reason to do so. The inspector general also found that LIRR supervisors didn’t use schedules, budgets, or status reports to plan and monitor projects. They must have … people skills.
