Study Finds 63% Of Construction Sites Just Group Of Friends Who Wanted To Play With Jackhammer

NEW YORK—Sharing the results of a nationwide study commissioned by industry trade group the New York Building Congress, researchers published findings on Thursday that showed 63% of all construction sites are just a group of friends who want to play with a jackhammer. “Contrary to popular assumption, the majority of active building sites are less concerned with erecting a new structure than with providing a place where some guys can have a blast drilling big holes in things,” said study co-author Jacqueline Summers, explaining that nearly two-thirds of construction areas originate when a few buddies stumble upon an empty lot and—after realizing one of them has a jackhammer and some two-by-fours in a storage unit—decide to just go to town. “Whether they’re standing around a manhole, on a cordoned-off sidewalk, or beneath the scaffolding of a high-rise, more often than not, the individuals involved do not work in the building trades. Instead, it’s just a bunch of buds who want to put on hardhats and crack open some concrete. It’s usually such a good time that they call out sick at their actual jobs and invite more pals over to the site until it’s almost like a party. Of course, this is why you’ll very rarely see one of these construction projects actually finished.” The study went on to confirm, however, that one such out-of-control gathering in Chicago in 1885 did result in the invention of the skyscraper.