Street Repair

During the past several years, every street in this neighborhood has been resurfaced, except the one where I live. This has been very frustrating to everyone here. This street gets a bit more traffic than most of the others, because it offers a direct route between the neighborhood entrances at the top and bottom of the hills. Uneven, lumpy, pitted and cracked, it had reached the point where it was becoming hazardous. When I called the city to ask for help, they sent a pothole crew the next day, but they repaired only one pothole. Apparently they realized the scope of this job was beyond their resources. Several other neighbors had also called asking for repairs. Finally, we got our wish. Work started on Tuesday. Years ago a job like this would have taken several weeks (the notices we received form the city warned it might take as long as four weeks). But modern equipment (consisting mostly of enormous, specialized machinery on wheels, each vehicle driven by one man who is assisted by others on foot) makes the job go much faster. I was impressed by how much progress they were able to make in just a few hours each day. On Thursday, the first layer of asphalt was laid.

Update: November 25, 2008

I am no longer impressed. After making a lot of progress working just three half-days last week, the street repair crew has vanished. It would seem they are taking the entire week off as a Thanksgiving holiday.

Update: December 4, 2008

And now I wonder if they intend to come back at all. Here it is, Thursday, and nothing has been done this week, even though the no parking signs are still up (and being universally ignored).

Update: December 12, 2008

Lots of huge machines, lots of workers, amazing noise, vibrations that terrified the cats, rattled the dishes, and made me think just a little too much about earthquakes. But at long last we have a smooth street.