A Road Show

I don’t know why this lane needs to be repaved, but they are working very diligently at it.  Maybe it is because they just repaved our lane (due to utility work), which is perpendicular to it, being located just under the window that you are looking out in the above photo.  What ever the reason, their efforts are very impressive on several levels.
First of all, the little bulldozers are being handled with such energetic coordination that it is like watching a well coordinated dance.  They move back and forth, digging and scraping, never seeming to even pause to make sure that they don’t hit each other or anything, yet skimming neatly through all the tight spaces.  All of the old asphalt is being loaded into a very long truck which is sandwiched into our lane.  I have not seen it drive in or out, so am mystified as to how they get it in there with my building still standing.  To fully appreciate my perspective, you must know that the turn into either of these lanes is tighter than the T intersection you see here; and there are power poles that make it difficult for small cars to maneuver.  The photo does not give the same sense of limited space that we see when viewing it in person.

The highlight of the show is when the forklift moves the parked cars around.  Apparently they don’t attempt to notify people not to park on the street, or, if they do, they don’t tow and ticket if the car owner can’t find another place to park.  They simply have a forklift working full time relocating the vehicles as needed.  Once placed, it is impossible to tell which cars were parked by the forklift, it is all done so neatly.

Traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, continues all around the work, right up to the boundaries of where the machines are at any given moment.  Jesse witnessed a green van making its way UNDER the car being held up by the forklift.  The long truck was right in front of our front gate at one point, only allowing about 2 feet of width for exiting.  The road workers have seemed polite about everyone’s movements.  The residents appear to hardly notice the difference in the landscape.
I find that I am getting quite comfortable with all of the closeness.  When I get home, I’ll probably get in trouble for walking through construction zones or standing too close to people.