Thursday, June 28, 2007

The endless digging drives me mad!

"Nothing's ever finished" is a phrase we hear all the time in Dubai, referring to the endless construction.

In fact it's not true. Things do get finished, and very quickly by world standards.

Then a couple of weeks later, along come the diggers, everything is ripped up and a huge hole appears! It's driving me crazy in Dubai Marina.

For months and months I'm driving an obstacle course, amongst & around grubby, dusty, garbage-strewn eye-sores of construction sites. Then one day, suddenly, the fence is taken down, the irritating red & white plastic cones and flapping bits of plastic are taken away. Very shortly after that the pavers go down and on some developments some restful green landscaping is put in.

What a relief for drivers and residents. It's all opened up, there's more space, it looks good.

Then...



These are a perfect example. Footpath and driveway finished, garden areas planted. Looking good.



That's the time they dig it all up.

Laying some plastic pipe, some cables, is hardly rocket science is it. Even if the labourers can't get it right surely there's some supervision, someone qualified to check that it all fits as it should - and is paid to do just that - before the hole is filled in and the drive/footpath laid on top.

That obviously doesn't happen. No-one checks, no-one signs off on it.

So the waste of time and money, the obstructions for motorists and pedestrians, the added pollution just goes on and on.

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