Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Saga Continues

All summer long I have been reporting on the work that has been done on the street in front of our house. It isn't done, yet. And we really have no idea WHEN it will be--could be this week, could be November. I thought I would take one post and write down all of the work that has been done up to now.

The first thing that happened was that the road was dug up so that water and sewage lines could be replaced. Of course, after this was done, we had areas of the street that were 1-3 inches lower (or more) than the rest of the road--it made for an interesting ride. When the pipes were done, the crew came in and added fill dirt and compacted everything so that it was a uniform 1 1/2 inches lower than the rest of the pavement. The city engineer--or whoever the yahoo is--inspected and told the construction company that they made a mistake. So, the company came back, dug out all of the compacted dirt, put in more fill, and compacted it all so that it was 3 inches lower than the pavement, like the engineer told them to. Some time later, a crew came down and patched the 3 inch areas and made them a uniform 1 1/2 inches deep. After this was done--a couple of weeks later, or so--a machine came down and 'munched' the surface of the street. This destroyed most, if not all, of the patches that were done previously. As a matter of fact, the 'muncher' chewed down to dirt in some places. Today, a crew came down and re-patched the places that had been brought down to dirt the last time. As everything seems to be quite uniform on the surface, I'm assuming the next step will be to come down and do the final paving. But, you never know, they may just come back and dig more holes.

I told K that the reason all of this is going on is that the city is trying to stimulate the economy by giving these people jobs. I don't think he was impressed with my thoughts.

And after all of this, I hope our city officials finally realize why there are so many re-call elections that take place.

5 comments:

  1. Don't you just love it!

    Government work is done by the lowest bidder. Remember, you get what you pay for!

    Hope it works out for you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This whole thing has just been ridiculous. The day after I wrote this post, the crew was back and they were digging out and replacing ONE of the manholes on the street. Still not sure whether the other one will be replaced or not. So, they will have to come back at least one more time and fill, compact, and fix the hole that was created before the street can be paved.

    I still think, if SOMEONE wanted to do an investigative piece on this, that the whole thing is a case of 'having' to use all of the money that was budgeted. One of those 'use it or lose it' deals. But, we'll never know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:20 AM

    A few years back, my street had the pipes replaced. They moved all the water access thingies (the round things where the water man can stick a long pole down and turn it on and off) from the sidewalks and put them in the grass, where we now have to trim around and remember not to run the mower over. And in most cases, they didn't put enough dirt back around them. The machinery ruined a little concrete apron my dad put in decades ago so he wouldn't bog down when he turned the car around. I insisted they fix that, there was a bit of an argument but they did it. And the places where they put the pipe in are covered with asphalt that acts like speed bumps but are very ugly with the rest of the street concrete. I'm especially pissed because this serves to create a pond right at my driveway where rain (and ice and slush in winter) collects and stays there until it's evaporated, which can take anywhere from a few hours to several days, to an entire winter. Grr.

    I've often thought that if they left such things to women, we'd have everything back the way it was, and better, in a fraction of the time. I agree with you-they're probably goofing off because they want to stretch the job out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If the powers-that-be actually let us know anything, or explained anything, then my viewpoint might be different. But, of course, we are just the people that are inconvenienced so we don't NEED to know. I can't wait to see what they come up with THIS week. I feel as if my entire summer has been on hold. I hate to leave the house during the day, cause I never know if I will be able to get down our street when I come back. Very, very irritating. Obviously, you feel my pain. ;)

    And, yes, I think if a woman was in charge, things would be much different. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good lord. I sure hope they FINISH the job soon!

    ReplyDelete

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