Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/16/timelapse-of-giant-sinkhole-re.html
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That is a shot of pure human-affirming awesome.
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And then I think about how long it took the council to repair the potholes on the inner ring road here. Another reason I’d like to live in Japan.
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But how much did it cost and who paid for it? Who was the work awarded to? Who was to blame? Sure, you can fix things fast if you don’t worry about those parts, but your perspective might change a bit if you later found out that the contractor that caused the sinkhole due to negligence was then paid an exorbitant amount to fix it, and going after them legally wasn’t pursued due to cozy relations with the local government, for sake of argument.
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Well, that’s one way to cause the complete and utter destruction of your civic and national infrastructure: waste time trying to pin the blame (and costs) on someone, rather than, you know, fixing the damage.
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Japan doesn’t fuck around when it comes to getting things done.
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Japan doesn’t seem to realize that maintaining roads in usable condition is rank socialism.
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I suspect the Japanese are better at including all the costs for extra traveling time for people etc that occur while that hole is open, not just the cost for the city to fix it. Even if the cost for the repair is much higher doing it round the clock, it is most likely a net profit. Many penny pinching city councils in the West just care about minimizing the cost of repair so they can keep taxes low, not providing the best service for the people.
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The hole seemed large enough to pose a stability issue for the surrounding buildings, so factoring disruption in traffic, utilities, business, and physical infrastructure i can see why they chose to get it handled around the clock. Whatever the cost was getting back to normal as quickly as possible probably saved everyone money.
Sadly this kind of foresight and common sense isn’t seen here for the most part. One of the last places i lived was by a rich neighborhood and the city was able to pave a pretty major avenue overnight and was pretty incredible. But if you went over to the next zone they had construction projects that are still ongoing every time i visit a friend once a year.
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moving a section of subway line in four hours is more impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIbZqqLra9k
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I don’t disagree, I’m just providing the perspective that often keeps things from getting done 'round North America.
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Very ant-like.
Another reason I’d like to live in Japan.
If I thought that I could get someone to sponsor a work visa for me over some good looking kid in their 20s I’d be back there like shot. Best five years of my life.
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Until the weight of that concrete plug they made is punches a whole new hole.
That’s all the pavement put down as road over an empty tunnel/passage? Looks like it’s 5cms thick!
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False. It took one week to repair. Still impressive, but not 48 hours. I think that number came from a report about some utilities being reconnected after that time.
*Edit: ha, just realized there is a running time stamp in the upper left that shows this. Besides, you can see the day/night cycles is more than 48 hours.
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When driving, it’s best not to think about what’s under you and the 18 wheelers bracketing you in start-and-stop traffic.
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I drive a car in one part of Japan and a scooter-truck(1) in Tokyo. Road repairs are not often fast, smooth or awesome in their results.
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Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Moving the Tsukiji fish market is a a big example of fucking around.
As a counter example, recently a part of the only access road to my neighborhood in Tokyo was being resurfaced. Took three weeks and cut off access to anything bigger than a pedestrian to thousands of houses and small businesses.
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Naaah… you’v got it backwards methinks.
I would imagine that those who pursue careers in the civil service very much want to produce better services. The penny-pinching is forced upon them by a certain segment of the electorate with an inherent distrust towards public sector employees.
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