City Fails and Construstion Worker Suckitude

[Kisa]

So a few days ago, my city decided to come down my street and replace parts of the sidewalk. Sounds like a normal thing, yes? NO! Why, you ask? Because no one got any warning whatsoever. No article in the paper, message on the answering machine, note on the door or anything. Just a rude awakening at 9am by jerky construction workers screaming at people to move their cars.

At this time, my mom was in the living room with the curtains closed. One of the men banged on the WINDOW. Yes, the freaking WINDOW!!! You see, where I come from, it's customary to knock on the DOOR when you wish to speak with someone instead of pounding on the picture window and peering inside like a creeper... Then, my mom, a little ticked, came to the door and was greeted with, "YOU MOVE CAR! NOW"!

Mom: Excuse me?
AssHo': YOU MOVE CAR! WE FIX SIDEWALK!
Mom: Ok....

She gets the keys for all 3 cars, mine, her's and my sister's, and moved all 3 cars into the street. Once this was finished, she started to go back inside. Before she could reach the first step even, AssHo' was barking at her again!

AssHo': NO! NO GOOD! YOU MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE! NO!
Mom: Where should I move them?
AssHo': SOMEWHERE ELSE! MOVE NOW!
Mom: WHERE!?!!
AssHo': *ignores*

So, mom moves the cars yet again, only to be yelled at a THIRD TIME to move the cars because she apparently didn't guess the right spot. She moves them again, and didn't get yelled at again. My guess is it had something to do with him leaving to go torment other people.

Later when I woke up, I noticed all the torn up concrete and mom told me of that morning's drama. I saw the workers come back and were getting awfully close to my baby (a cute lil' Eclipse who I love dearly) so I stood back and watched them from inside to make sure they didnt touch him. They noticed my stares and shot daggers in my direction. Soon, a cement truck appeared and the driver was screaming something at the workers and was pointing violently at my mom's car (I heard him call the workers dumbasses). One worker turned to me and flipped.

Jerk: THEES YOUR CAR??!!! THEES YOUR CAR??!!!!
Me: Actually i-
Jerk: THEES YOUR CAR?!!! YOU MOVE YOUR CAR! MOVE NOW!!!
Me: Not mine!

Technically, I didn't lie since it was my mom's car. I just stopped caring when they continued to be ass monkeys. Because the car was in the way, they had to reach over to pull the wet cement over as the truck poured it. Awe...poor babies. Must me soooo rough to have to reach a whole 3 feet I weep great crocodile tears for you

[Canarr]

Yeah, unannounced construction is great...

My girlfriend's mother had a great surprise one Saturday morning, years ago. Apparently, the Telecom needed to do upgrades on several of the cables they had leading up to people's houses in her street, so they sent work crews around to dig them up. Without informing people of that in advance, of course.

So, she was woken at 8-9 a.m. (don't know accurately, it gets earlier every time she tells the story) by the sound of a jackhammer in her front garden. Storming out of the house, she was faced with a burly construction worker busily drilling a hole in her lawn. Unfortunately, he didn't speak German too well...

Girlfriend's Mom (GM): WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE????
Construction Worker (CW): I MAKE HOLE!
GM: I CAN SEE THAT! BUT WHY ARE YOU DIGGING A HOLE IN MY GARDEN????
CW (shutting off the jackhammer): You Mrs. [Name]?
GM: YES!
CW: Then I right place!

And then he happily switched his hammer back on an continued with his task, despite her protestations. Luckily, there was a foreman nearby who was actually fluent enough in German to explain to GM what was going on before she could call the police.

[Kogarashi]

We get that periodically at our complex when the university's contractors don't communicate well (or at all) with the grad housing office. The most recent was the company in charge of the laundry machines. They basically called the office one morning to say, "Yeah, we're ripping out the machines today so we can put new ones in." So we got a last-minute e-mail warning us about the machines getting yanked that day, and no notice of when the new ones would be put in. I pity anyone who was doing laundry when the guys showed up. I myself didn't know about it (due to not having checked my e-mail yet at that point) when I heard very loud thumps as the guys brought the machines up our basement stairs.

Other incidents include last-minute lot plowing, last-minute lot-painting, last-minute stairwell cleaning, last-minute housing inspections, and my absolute favorite, "We're doing (some kind of maintenance or inspection) starting this day, with Complex A on ThisDate, Complex B on ThatDate, etc." and then the contractors showing up either three days early or a week or more late (and taking twice as long to complete the project as we were led to believe). If we weren't moving in December, I'd be sorely tempted to contact the office and say, "Look, I don't know how much you're paying the union to clean the stairwells, but a friend and I can do it in half the time. Pay us instead?"

I think part of the timing delays might be related to the contractors' penchant for pausing every ten minutes for yet another smoke break, despite all the No Smoking signs around the complex.

[LillFilly]

This reminded me of when I came upon some road flaggers directing traffic due to an accident. The guy waved the cars in front of me with his glowing cone flashlights to a side street, then signaled me by waving both lights towards his body while facing me in, what I thought was the obvious, 'pull forward' motion; My BF said that's what it looked like he was signaling too. I continued forward slowly, because I wasn't sure where he expected me to go, and he suddenly started thrashing his arms around like an injured chicken and yelling at me. I rolled down my window and he shouted "Lady, can't you see there's an ACCIDENT up there!? Whatareyou doing!? It's people like you that CAUSE accidents!" I saw red and said "I was doing exactly what you were signaling me to do, maybe it's people like YOU that cause accidents." Grrr....

[SmivMoc]

They just finished the third week of digging up and repaving our street. It was supposed to be a one week job, and it'll be at least three more days, assuming they do any work.

[blas]

Granted, I was just driving by, but things like this really irritate me, especially since in this part of Wisconsin, they insist on digging up and fixing nearly every main road every year and taking until snowfall to finish, if they do.

There was a lane closed on the highway on the way home, and there was a giant construction vehicle on the side of the road.

Three men were sitting on the end of it, smoking.

Not to mention it really burns my ass when I have to venture into the worst of construction, and only one guy is working and everyone else is having coffee or a smoke to the side.

Or in the winter, when every plow is in the McDonalds or Wendy's drive thru.

But no, it's too much traffic that delays construction projects. It's us citizens refusing to use alternate routes (what alternative is there when you dig up EVERYWHERE?) and driving too much in construction zones that puts off getting the road work done. And in the winter, there's always a city working howling and crying on the news that it's our fault they can't always do the best of jobs plowing because we won't stay home. What the fuck ever.

Whatever.

[smileyeagle1021]

Oh construction idiocy...
Utah has more than it's fair share.
I really am tired of UTA's attempts to save North Temple... please stop trying to save us, we don't want your help anymore... we thought we did two years ago, but now that we see you hired the most incompetent contractors on the planet we aren't so enthusiastic.
It took them a YEAR to do utility prep work on a 4 mile stretch, that was just prep work. Now they are finally getting around to installing actual track for the TRAX extension and hauling ass at it, but only because they gave up the plans to repave North Temple except where damaged by construction. And as an added bonus, two weeks ago they announced the lights would be out at North Temple and Redwood... we all assumed (silly us) that they meant the traffic lights would be out... nope, they meant every single light (and everything else powered by electricity) would be out in a city block each direction from the intersection. And my personal favorite is the random turn restrictions that are done with minimal warning.

[Andara Bledin]

My city has been repaving a number of roads in the last few months.

Only, my city seems to be sane and it's gone really well.

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

Our city likes to tear up a road piecemeal and repave it one tiny bit at a time. Then, once you've decided to give up and accept the horridly bumpy stretch of road that's left when it's done, the city goes and tears it all up again so they can repave the whole thing in one go. Great, right? Except that you'll get maybe a month driving on the shiny new road before, oops! we have to repair all that duct work and whatever we did in the first place! Time to tear it up one foot at a time again!

Though what I honestly find more annoying than that is the city's tendency to shut down lots of major streets with absolutely no warning for marathons, charity runs, etc. so that the joggers don't get hit by cars. Fair enough, but as I said, there is absolutely no warning about this until we head off to Church that Sunday morning only to find we've been completely boxed in and can't actually get to church. Thanks, City.

[protege]

But no, it's too much traffic that delays construction projects. It's us citizens refusing to use alternate routes (what alternative is there when you dig up EVERYWHERE?) and driving too much in construction zones that puts off getting the road work done.

When did you move to Pennsylvania, Blas? They're doing something similar here. Nearly every main road is torn up for some reason. Hell, last year, they had multiple projects going on...in less than 2 square miles! They'd tear up the main road, and then (days later), have every road leading around the construction mess...torn up too. Then they can't understand why residents and commuters were pissed, and flipping off the construction crews. Sorry, but what do you expect when you take your good old time fixing a bridge that's been torn up the past 2 years...and the detours make you drive 20 miles out of your way just to get around it?

[Greenday]

When did you move to Pennsylvania, Blas? They're doing something similar here. Nearly every main road is torn up for some reason. Hell, last year, they had multiple projects going on...in less than 2 square miles! They'd tear up the main road, and then (days later), have every road leading around the construction mess...torn up too. Then they can't understand why residents and commuters were pissed, and flipping off the construction crews. Sorry, but what do you expect when you take your good old time fixing a bridge that's been torn up the past 2 years...and the detours make you drive 20 miles out of your way just to get around it?

Haha, that's what I was thinking. PA turnpike and just about every highway is under some sort of construction 24/7.

[jedimaster91]

what alternative is there when you dig up EVERYWHERE?

I've been saying for awhile now I'd just like to go one place where there wasn't construction somewhere along my route. Don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.

[smileyeagle1021]

Though what I honestly find more annoying than that is the city's tendency to shut down lots of major streets with absolutely no warning for marathons, charity runs, etc. so that the joggers don't get hit by cars. Fair enough, but as I said, there is absolutely no warning about this until we head off to Church that Sunday morning only to find we've been completely boxed in and can't actually get to church. Thanks, City.

I'd love for that to only happen for marathons and parades... we've had construction closures with no warning before.
... oh, we don't need to give advance notice that 700 north is going to be closed, it's not that difficult to go to 2100 north and come back... yeah, you.

[Kogarashi]

I'd love for that to only happen for marathons and parades... we've had construction closures with no warning before.
... oh, we don't need to give advance notice that 700 north is going to be closed, it's not that difficult to go to 2100 north and come back... yeah, you.

Ah, see, I expect road closures for construction. Plus the blocks here are small enough that it's not terribly far out of the way to go around the construction. But the running? You know, if we knew in advance, we could've parked on a different street and maybe left a little earlier so we could actually get to church on time.

[dalesys]

... get to church on time.

... getting married in the morning?


(lady greeting new neighbor)
"Oh! You're Mormon! How many wives does your husband have?"
(newbie)
"One. More than he deserves."
--- Calvin Grondahl