Why repeated steel expansion could postpone repairs

Would continuously rising naval steel demand explain why hurried industrial expansion left environmental problems unresolved?

Yes: if each completed expansion immediately proved too small, fixes deferred until production caught up could be postponed again.

If a hurried expansion left defects to fix once output was high enough, another increase in demand could arrive before the repairs took place. Further expansion would then receive priority and the earlier defects would remain. Repeated demand increases could therefore perpetuate pollution and other problems in the plants. Planning for factories and shipyards already scheduled to open, with some additional capacity, would allow steel output to grow ahead of those requirements.