Public Works, Public Headaches
Driving into town this morning, I saw again the main street in cut off because of works - again. So I had to drive up and around to come back down and into the main square. The street that was cut off used to be a two-way street, then it was changed to a one-way street. Now it's a sometimes street.
If not one week, it's another, but there is always some type of work going on in that street. Is there a problem with drainage pipes? Heaven knows. Heaven also knows why the company in charge of the sewer system doesn't correct the problem, once and for all. It sometimes reminds me of a Spanish comedy series on television, in which in a small city street a trench has been opened and no one knows why, or when it will be closed. Not even the worker.
It's absolutely normal in a Spanish city or town to have a street dug up for maintenance. Maybe pipes need to be replaced. So the street is cut off or traffic is narrowed to one lane, and every driver and resident sighs and resigns himself. Then, the trenches are closed, and traffic restored to normal. Until a month later, when the city decides to put in, let's say, fiber optic cable. So the street is cut off again, the new asphalt is demolished, and chaos reigns. And that sequence can happen up to five times. With the end result after a couple of years, probably, that the street has been paved over, and cars are no longer allowed. Even if it had once been a major street and it now takes five hours to traverse the rest of the streets around town. Humanization of a street tends to mean dehumanization of drivers, who find road rage trickling through to their finger tips.
And those in charge of some of the roads around here are very stingy with asphalt. There are lanes around here that had shiny blacktop extended on them ten years ago. Now grass and weeds are poking up along the middle. You could leave a cow to graze along some of them. And there are no plans for new blacktop. Our road has had patches slapped on almost every year. It's gotten to be that patches have been slapped on the patches, and that's all the asphalt it's seen in the past twenty-five years. A few years ago trenches were dug down the road in the next village to put in sewer pipes. When it was asphalted, the newspaper carried the story that it would be asphalted along its entire length. The entire length of the trenches, perhaps, but that was it.
So, maybe next week the main street will be opened. Maybe even tomorrow. But you can count on it being closed again before the month is out.
If not one week, it's another, but there is always some type of work going on in that street. Is there a problem with drainage pipes? Heaven knows. Heaven also knows why the company in charge of the sewer system doesn't correct the problem, once and for all. It sometimes reminds me of a Spanish comedy series on television, in which in a small city street a trench has been opened and no one knows why, or when it will be closed. Not even the worker.
It's absolutely normal in a Spanish city or town to have a street dug up for maintenance. Maybe pipes need to be replaced. So the street is cut off or traffic is narrowed to one lane, and every driver and resident sighs and resigns himself. Then, the trenches are closed, and traffic restored to normal. Until a month later, when the city decides to put in, let's say, fiber optic cable. So the street is cut off again, the new asphalt is demolished, and chaos reigns. And that sequence can happen up to five times. With the end result after a couple of years, probably, that the street has been paved over, and cars are no longer allowed. Even if it had once been a major street and it now takes five hours to traverse the rest of the streets around town. Humanization of a street tends to mean dehumanization of drivers, who find road rage trickling through to their finger tips.
And those in charge of some of the roads around here are very stingy with asphalt. There are lanes around here that had shiny blacktop extended on them ten years ago. Now grass and weeds are poking up along the middle. You could leave a cow to graze along some of them. And there are no plans for new blacktop. Our road has had patches slapped on almost every year. It's gotten to be that patches have been slapped on the patches, and that's all the asphalt it's seen in the past twenty-five years. A few years ago trenches were dug down the road in the next village to put in sewer pipes. When it was asphalted, the newspaper carried the story that it would be asphalted along its entire length. The entire length of the trenches, perhaps, but that was it.
So, maybe next week the main street will be opened. Maybe even tomorrow. But you can count on it being closed again before the month is out.
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