The quick answer is incentives and disincentives. Many major construction projects with the Texas Department of Transportation call for the construction company to receive a bonus for predetermined milestones and again if they finish a project and open the road, highway or bridge significantly early.

Construction companies start to lose profit if they are on the wrong side of the construction finish deadline.

According to the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, one of the larger incentives given for a project was the $2.64 billion Katy freeway reconstruction project that affected travel for approximately 280,000 vehicles per day.

A 24/7 schedule was adopted by the construction company for that project, and the early finish had TxDOT paying $50.9 million for meeting milestones. Early completion meant another $7.5 million in bonuses paid. The amount of milestone and completion bonuses equaled about 2.4 percent of the total project cost, according to Texas A&M.