Construction Time Again

Morgan Chambers

Is it just me or does almost every road in the Lower Mainland seem to be under construction? I started out my column (does that sound refined or what? "my column") griping about all the hours I've spent waiting for a flag person to turn the slow sign my way. However, after about 1/2 a page I started thinking about how much fun it could be to do the actual construction.

Think about it (we'll use the construction at the bottom of Gaglardi as an example):

You get to work in the morning and park your vehicle on what used to be the side of the road. After slogging back a mug o' coffee (or whatever your poison is) you wander over to the side of the road and crawl onto a huge machine just like the Tonka toys you play with in the sandbox (only BIGGER).

You didn't get much sleep last night because the dog next door was serenading the toy poodle across the street. Needless to say you aren't in the greatest of moods, so while moving the concrete barriers to form new lanes down the hill, you see how narrow and curvy you can make the new lanes. Now its time to totally demolish the curb and make it even with the side of the road. You push about a ton of sand around and, knowing that it will have to be repaired tomorrow after it rains, attempt to model the topography of Northern British Columbia.

Every morning, it takes a while to get into the swing of things and nothing puts a smile on your face faster than watching a long line of cars sit waiting for you to finish. No matter how slow you're moving, it could be worse, you could be sitting in your car going nowhere and fuming. Life isn't so bad! The best part is laughing as people drive by and give you nasty looks. Like you couldn't drive your earth mover over their wussy Honda and barely notice.

Of course, the true beauty of it all is that the whole process repeats in the afternoon when everyone is trying to get home. (Just for the record, I never said this was an accurate point of view, just it could be fun.)

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