You may have read my previous entry about the lame attempt of this City's road repair and how they mainly patch the roads the last week before the snow flies, rendering the efforts a waste as the first plow that comes down the street basically scrapes it up and deposits the patch in chunks in the boulevard grass or on our walkways. (How they know when this is precisely I have no idea, but seriously, it literally happens that way year after year.) Well getting off the bus today and walking up 18th to my house I noticed that there was new patch, and it's only August. Odd.
OMG!!! **lightbulb goes on** I surely HOPE it isn't going to snow next week!!! Shit.
Anyway, as I turned onto my street, the patching continued, rather sporadically as in the fall. Some spots over patched, to the point of it making humps in the road - granted this will be tamped down by vehicles over time - Heaven forbid that the workers actually do any tamping or even put the patch in much needed areas vs not. Walking along I noticed several areas were there were still pits - not as deep or as wide as some that were patched, but still, pits nonetheless. I really don't understand how they can make these huge patches, then leave part of it pitted. Also there were still areas of rock and gravel, showing that they didn't bother to sweep it into the pits and seal it with the patch (which may or may not be a good thing - heck I've never taken Road Repair 101 - so *shrug* I dunno if it's better to use it as fill and then cover it, or if that would be too loose underneath the patch and make it so the patch doesn't cure properly?) Anyone?
Here are some pics I took tonight to illustrate this patching with no real rhyme or reason.
Click them to enlarge and see where I've circled some of the instances of unfilled pits or pits full of gravel which have gone neglected.
The corner, upperside. Notice how the patch isn't even tamped down or tapered to allow for better runoff flow to the sewer drain - and it's hard to see here, but that area around the drain itself is built up - how is water to drain into it when there's a bit of a wall there? Really bright.
The corner lowerside, no drain on this side, but notice how the patch goes from lower to higher rounding the curve of the corner and then if you click the photo to enlarge it you can see where I've circled the pits both with and without gravel that could have been patched or cleaned and patched as well. One or two more shovelsful gonna kill ya? Coulda used that bit that climbs up the curve for one of them. But Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Looking towards 18th, here again you can see some of the excess gravel in the pit that went unpatched near the drain as well as the shoddy patch job from last fall. (The lighter grey areas.)
Here is another shot of the sewer drain from the above photo. Notice the lack of patch around this sewer drain vs the first one where the patch was built up and all the excess gravel. Click the photo to enlarge the view. Notice there is no wall built around this sewer drain and also the deteriorating/broken away curb area on the right side of the drain.
I didn't bother to circle this photo - but after viewing the previous photos I think you can tell which areas are new patch, old patch, pitted and excess gravel. Click photo to enlarge.
Another view - as I walked up the street towards my home. Again one can clearly see this poor use of bitumen, time, and money that has gone on over time. (I've lived here 17.5 yrs and this goes on each and every year. All one can do is shake your head at this waste, especially in this time of recession, not to mention, over time what would the cost have been to resurface the street or even patch larger areas as I have noticed on other streets in the area - I'll have to find one I've recently noticed on my walk home to show what I mean.)
This is right in front of my house. The lower light-ish grey area below that new patch is gravel that has collected and old patch. Count from the bottom, three patches up and to the left are more pitted and gravelfilled areas.I didn't bother to keep advancing further up the street as I believe these photos show enough to give an idea for the purpose of my rant.
I wish I would have been home today to observe and scrutinise this shoddy workmanship and waste of my taxes directly to the workers as they proceeded along in their work - asking and pointing out the obvious as it seems that they are pit/gravel blind and maybe even are some untrained temp workers or volunteers doing this job. Then again, in most volunteer programs I've witnessed or participated in, the volunteers go above and beyond to do the best job they can, demonstrating pride in their work and a willingness to do what is best for the future as well.
Clearly our city workers don't share this same work ethic and sadly enough are getting paid.
And people wonder why I want to leave this city.
/rant.
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