So, after what seemed like an eternity, the construction at South and South Park came to an end and traffic could flow normally through the south end. Motorists and taxpayers carried on with their lives happily, thinking that surely the job was finished for at least a few years. The end.
Unfortunately, in this particular universe, the job was not finished and South has once again been severed. And, once again, all the traffic that it is supposed to flow up and down that street has been forced through residential streets (i.e. the one I live on). Parking in front of my house (which I dreamed about all winter) has now become a game of chance, and the nights are awash with the sounds of noisy vehicles that would otherwise never be there. In short: fuck incompetent ass construction. —Resident on a Formerly Quiet Street
This article appears in May 6-12, 2010.
have you ever noticed that when they pave over streets, less than a month later, they rip it up, and put down patches. don’t you just love this completely fucked up town?
Given the city does tend to hire unorganized, slack-ass contractors to do their work, the fact is these contractors exist and are rightful in their bids to attain work. Bid low, win the job.
On the face, yea, it is their incompetence at fault… but look at who hires them in the first place.
Bitch about them, please – or at least do so in the same breath.
But an FYI, OP: the city, the economy (arguably the world) is run on and relied upon by delays.
Time in, money paid, money flowed – the economy grows.
On the grand scheme, no one in their elected seat gives a shit that you can’t park on the street, or have to be re-routed, or have to deal with the sight.
The councilors, the MLA’s, the MP’s (on any given awarded contract on a city, provincial and federal job) – they’ll take your concern; they’ll fight for you, (or won’t) – but either way, the more time something takes, generally, the better for the economy. So if they do fight for you and your concern, they are, within reason, powerless and not listened to. The economists, the advisers, and the decision makers (eventually) – all understand this.
They need the economy to be alive, and this is definitely one great way to help it (micro jobs or otherwise).
Yes, time-lines do exist and are generally attempted to be adhered to (contractors and politicians do have to be held accountable, people want to see progress on the city, to watch where their money goes, and politicians want to be re-elected).
But, just within the walls of reason, delays are expect and certainly welcomed (but obviously not openly encouraged).
Engineers take awhile, approvals take awhile. Not to mention the always unexpected ‘new finds’ on the job – that could add on a few weeks, months.
And yes, incompetent, slack-assed, careless contractors and their slack-jawed employees don’t (or do) help.
But if it took any less time, it’d mean one more person sooner without work for any given time, one more dollar paid out on EI, and one less dollar flowing to keep this leaking economy afloat; they’re trying to stretch it out.
Ugh, OP. I, too, abhor this construction.
I live directly on South Park street, and for the first half of my lease, I didn’t have access to the ultra convenient bus stop practically right outside my house, and that was one of the major selling points of me even signing the damn lease for this place. I’m at least somewhat thankful that now that my bus pass is expired, they waited to do the construction. But STILL.
It seems that all that ever happens in this city in the summer is construction, construction, construction.
Reason number ONE I am glad I moved out of the South End. Unfortunately there are very few other reasons 🙁
Maritimers complain about construction in the summer, then wonder why the roads are so shitty in the winter. Endless cycle.
This one’s only up for about 2-3 weeks, they simply have to finish what they began and pave the road smoother again. That intersection was only given a patch pave for the winter.
WTF is up with that street?
Same with Bayers Lake….they just put down new payment last early Fall, and now they are tearing up sections of it for construction. WTF? Don’t these people plan?
And what about the pavement they put down? Regardless of the fact taht they are now ripping it up again – it was total shite to begin with!
looked like a deadhead on acid did the paving! It was/is so wonky you can hardly drive over it! I wonder, have these guys ever laid pavement before? Maybe this time they will actually do it properly and the road won’t fall apart within a month….
Plastic Diver Guy wrote “This one’s only up for about 2-3 weeks, they simply have to finish what they began and pave the road smoother again. That intersection was only given a patch pave for the winter.”
Unfortunately, week #1 is coming to an end and they’ve basically only set the pylons up and unloaded the equipment. I’ve worked on several construction projects involving paving urban streets, and I’ve never seen the pomp and circumstance that’s on display there: hundreds of pylons, three or four excavators, round the clock traffic “police”, but no WORK being done.
If this was a private job with actual penalties for delays, they’d have that sucker wrapped up in a week flat. They also would have started in the intersection and worked out, thereby not minimizing the disruption to traffic and avoiding having to hire 5x times the number of flaggers necessary.
ignore the word “not” from that last sentence…
i live on the corner!
try being vibrated out of your bed every morning
FUCK MY LIFE!