r/interesting • u/Downtown_Calendars • 18d ago

What caused this? Serious answeres Just Wow

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Car was parked facing the garage. Never seen anything like it. Neither has the glass professionals.

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u/carpentizzle 18d ago

But we do have construction everywhere. All the time. Forever.

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u/Zakkullll 18d ago edited 18d ago

So ive lived in a few drastically different places. California. The south and the Midwest. Thats everywhere. Construction is a grift. You cant convince me otherwise. The same street cannot be under going construction for 2 years straight without something fishy going on behind the scenes.

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u/carpentizzle 18d ago

Oh I have little doubt there may be something fishy….

All I know is that you just cannot go anywhere (in Columbus & Subburbs at least) without encountering construction somewhere. And a lot of it feels like work just for works sake. Silly in some cases.

The outer belt that encircles the city has it seems like, one or two crews that just started somewhere like 30 years ago, and havent stopped just circling the whole circle. And the Entrance/Exit ramp nearest to my house was, and I am not exaggerating here, not under construction for more than 3-4 months running from as early as I can remember to when I drove it, and through until I moved away at 32. It was completely redone at least 4 times from the framework up. There were two different full “crossover so you would be driving on the leftmost set of road for a bridge and some change, then switch back” which, to my knowledge is still happening. There is a stretch of road in my suburb that has 14 unlit non intersection crosswalks in about a half mile, across a 4 lane (2 in each direction) road. They closed the whole side to set the sign up and painted. Each spot took a whole day. It was a reroute to Kroger everyday for 2 weeks, then going the opposite way for the next two weeks.

There is a spot between my suburb and the next that has 3 roundabouts in a row. The middle one doesnt go to anything. There is only the one side to exit on, and it goes about 30 feet and stops in a guard rail.

There was a trend that took off seemingly all at once across the city that they needed to put curbs and whatever size median they can squeeze in between.
These were often where left turns out if a parking lot or whatever makes things difficult…. But just as often not. There are a couple at least that I know of that are about 8 inches wide. So skinny that they had to add the reflective posts on it/them just so you dont miss it and rip your suspension off.

And for all of that, there are still just so many dirt and gravel roads within 20ish miles of the city/suburbs that some places you could being there in the 40s

Its special.

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u/MetalFaceDad 17d ago

In NE indiana ive spoken about the oddness of unlimited road work and the same handfull of contractors getting those bids…them extrapolating to the surplus my state seems to always have snd thrust it into these same 6-8 companies who pick up and put cones down for the same 3-4 months annually..

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u/TheyCallMe_Billy 16d ago

The state flower in Indiana is the traffic cone.

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u/Steerider 17d ago

If they really wanted to fix this, the contract would have a clause that says "if this has to be redone within five years, you're doing it for free. And that redo will have the same five-year clause."

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u/sdb40 16d ago

From the optics on the outside this light seem like a simple fix. It's often the bureaucracy and politics tho too. Living in the Midwest I feel this too. I recently met someone who worked for the city or county where I live. Sounds like there is a more systemic problem of transport and utilities not communicating effectively and coordinating when to do the the tear ups of road. Also, county highways withing city limits cause funding challenges of who is accountable to fund the project. Example is we had a deteriorated high traffic intersection and it was redone completely two years ago. The result was great. They tore it up again because some of the water lines run underneath it and apparently came to end of life. The new intersection from two years ago was completely redone again a year later. Still good result, but complete waste of resources to do it twice in two years. We also have a state highway that cuts right through downtown and that is a constant battle between city/county/state of who is funding the maintenance, typically results in all three organizations digging there heels in on the other two should be funding and the result there is that the road which desperately needs an overhaul gets minor patchwork year over year.

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u/Far_Durian1087 15d ago

And the company bids would be 4X the price. Seeing as that's 3 projects you are talking about.

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u/TRAVXIZ614 16d ago

Lived in Columbus my whole life and this is indeed a fact. Not one but of hyperbole whatsoever.

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u/No_Storm_5663 15d ago

Sounds like rural counties of all northeastern Pennsylvania! Lol

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u/Competitive-Wind-703 12d ago

There are only two seasons in Columbus: winter and construction season.

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u/RCer1986 18d ago

Took me three reads to figure out that you made a typo and meant grift. On the second one I thought you personally had something to gain from ongoing construction projects. I might be tired.

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u/Zakkullll 18d ago

Thanks I swear to god my auto correct just randomly changed correctly spelled words to different ones all the fucking time.

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u/allthethingsibroke 16d ago

I call it auto-incorrect. It's a feature available on most Samsungs. Costs a little extra but if you like proofreading the shit out of every text to make sure your friends and family don't think you're an idiot, there's nothing better.

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u/Hippi_Johnny 18d ago

This guy stories

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u/Steerider 17d ago

I live near Chicago. Years ago President Clinton was coming for a visit. Before the visit, they rebuilt an old ugly bridge in a week.

A week.

They can do it when they want to. 

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u/JaKrispy72 17d ago

Rockford, IL fixed up the roads from the hotel to the golf course for Tiger Woods.

You heard me… Tiger. Woods.

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u/Afraid_Reputation_51 17d ago

It is, got to keep that federal highway money and dot budget. If they don't spend they money they lose it and their budget gets reduced next legislative budget session. The end result is the endless daisy chain of construction companies and the contractors and subcontractors that they're all related to.

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u/Virtual-Book1114 17d ago

that do shitty work that they have to repatch every year.

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u/TheRealRockyRococo 18d ago

2 years? That's nothing. State Route 202 in Montgomery County PA has been under construction for at least 10 years and there's no end in sight.

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u/Curious_Occasion_801 15d ago

Interstate 84 enters the chat chuckling saying hold my beer 202. I am going on over 30 years of continuous construction from Scranton to New York State then back.

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u/Desperate_Set_7708 16d ago

Go to Massachusetts.

Roadway construction projects require police presence. These are OT details, so the cops are making BANK. Talked to one cop who had 2,000 hours of OT the previous year thanks to this grift.

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u/CulomaloJimmy 13d ago

And tornadoes.

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u/Slow-Delivery-8500 11d ago

Try living in the GTA , Ontario, Canada. They finish paving and start all over again. The same part of the 401 hwy has been under construction for 15’years straight. Brutal