Pretty interesting to see your experience, my overall impression is that Japan still moves along quickly when compared to the fuckery you see here in the US. As i mentioned before, every time i do my yearly visit to a friend i always see the same 3-4 road construction projects still on going. It’s been about 5-6 years.
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Partly its a matter of scale, we just dont have big highways that take years to fix or widen for example.
Anecdotally, my city has taken five years and counting repaving one two-lane street.
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I do recall back when I lived near Harajuku that the two lane each way (really one lane each way) section of Meiji Dori there was under construction for about 8 years but that was due to a new subway line.
FWIW Meiji Dori is the only north/south corridor that links several major areas of Tokyo so this was a pretty big inconvenience.
Sure, whatever else we say about the priority of infrastructure in the States vs Japan, I think Annoyance With Construction Projects can safely be added to the list of cultural universals.
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If can work both ways. Sometimes the electorate pressure the politicians to minimize taxes, other time the politicians have an ideology where the public sector should be as small as possible, even if it means bad service.
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No, Liz, that’s tunnel that is still being excavated under a road. They’re putting in the LRT (Light Rail) Centennial Line right underneath the street. That’s the corner of Rideau and Sussex, which is probably the busiest intersection in downtown Ottawa. Unfortunately, the shale underlying this is somewhat unstable. There have been two minor sinkholes nearby since.
@GulliverFoyle, 18-wheelers aren’t normally allowed that far. The transport route turns off about a 1/2 kilometre further along from what you see here. There are a sh*tload of Ottawa and Gatineau commuter buses that stop on that block, though.
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As a counter example, recently a part of the only access road to my neighborhood in Tokyo was being resurfaced.
To be fair; this hole was a block away from Hakata Station. And I don’t think the construction mobs that are cozy with the Abe government are wasting their time in far away Kyushu.
Not being familiar with the area myself, I looked up Hakata Station on the map. Plenty of access roads. Not to belittle the need to fill the sinkhole but in fact it would be pretty easy to reroute access to the station and surrounding area of the sinkhole.
Allow me to correct you. The construction industry has always been close to the government whether the LDP is in power or not. No need to unfairly imply any criminal connection to PM Abe.
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