Road Work, Part II

October 10, 2009 By: thenhbushman Category: Taiwan, Topography

Photos by MJ Klein

Well, as you can see, the rubble is gone now. So are any traces of the trees that once lined this street. Now I think our neighborhood looks like everywhere else in Taiwan.

Some of the void has been filled with aggregate and rolled flat, in preparation for paving. One interesting thing I found is that since there was a traffic island separating the sections of road, they aren’t exactly level with reference to one another. It will be interesting to see the final finished road.

I’ll continue to update this situation as the county does more work on this road. Thanks for reading! We look forward to your comments and ratings below.

Articles in series Road Work:

First in series Previous in series Next in series Last in series

Road Work, Part III
Photos by MJ Klein More work has been done on the main road in our neighborhood. This is a shot from across the street from Shao-hui's r ...
Road Work, Part V
Photos by MJ Klein When Hui-chen and I got back from Kaohsiung on Monday afternoon, I noticed a new set of transformers on the new pad. The ol ...
Road Work, Part VI
Photos by MJ Klein By the looks of things, this will probably be the last article on the recent makeover in our neighborhood. If anything else ...
Road Work, Part IV
Photos by MJ Klein This morning, the road crew was back, hard a work to fix up the road. I took a few shots from my 4th floor balcony and then ...
The Road Behind Our House, Part 2
Photos by MJ Klein Hui-chen and I just returned to Taiwan from vacation and found that some more work had been done on the road behind our hous ...

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11 Responses to “ Road Work, Part II ”

# 1 MJ Klein Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Road Work, Part II | http://tinyurl.com/yha6m8g
# 2 malcolm Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
MJ great pictures , when did you take your trip to NC? love the Cabelas stores and always loved GI Joe’s on the west coast , I lived in Alaska and wore a lot of Cabelas cloths myself but for warm shirts in the cold winters I went for the Penelton shirts made in Portland and Penelton Oregon, but they too have bit the dust as have a lot of good stores . glad you had a good time and look foward to lots more pictures . Malcolm
.-= malcolm´s last blog ..MY HOW TIME FLIES ,WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN =-.

thenhbushman reply on October 12th, 2009 9:12 am:

hi Malcolm. we went to NC in 2008 on our trip to the USA. Hui-chen has never heard of them before, except for my clothing. it was a fun trip going to the store. thanks.
# 3 malcolm Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
MJ Good to see that they are doing a little work on the roads in your town , makes it look all modern , they are doing some paving on the walking and bike riiding trails around our village and I hope they don’t take the old look and feel away by trying to keep up with the so called BIG CITIES I love the feel of a small town and seems like the folks are a lot friendlier and easy going, than those in the more modern looking town , I think our minds adapt to the enviorment around us and if everything is pavement and concret so goes our minds ha ha Malcolm
.-= malcolm´s last blog ..MY HOW TIME FLIES ,WHEN YOU’RE HAVING FUN =-.

thenhbushman reply on October 12th, 2009 9:14 am:

Malcolm, i’m afraid that they are taking away the “feel” of the neighborhood by removing those trees. take a look at these:

http://www.thenhbushman.com/2007/10/07/typhoon-krosa-we-got-lucky/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thenhbushman/1483704053/

the trees added a certain character to the neighborhood that is now missing. now our neighborhood looks the same as all the others. i also liked our small town feel but i’m afraid that’s gone now. oh well…. thanks.
# 4 Brunty Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
MJ, it is shame to see the trees gone and the street does look very diferent. It is a good thing as you explained to Stefan about teh problems with scooters and trucks/cars.

Thailand also has this problem in many streets but sadly they were too silly to think of reserving enough land to expand roads.

Many streets are now virtually to the front door of shops and when you walk out of the shop you have to look before taking a few steps or you might be hit by a motorcycle.

What angers me here in Thailand are the police do not enforce parking restrictions and you have cars blocking roadways, double parked and just creating dangers all the time.

As for motorbikes travelling the wrong way, this is what puts me off cycling a lot because of idiots travelling towards you and you are trying to second guess where they are going to go.

I am sure the street though much less attractive to the eye will be safer and better for traffic flow.
.-= Brunty´s last blog ..Cooking Mushrooms and Dancing, Isaan Thailand. =-.

thenhbushman reply on October 12th, 2009 9:17 am:

Brunty, you’re right – it does look very different. now when i turn down that street i don’t recognize it and for a split-second i always feel as if i’ve made a wrong turn. i’ve seen those roads in Thailand that you speak of and unfortunately they don’t have room to expand because of the buildings. i can’t tell you how many times i’ve been on the highway, on the motorcycle lane, only to find another motorcycle going the wrong way coming towards me. what is with people? traffic laws exist for a reason and they are not “suggestions” or “guidelines” of how things should be. i’m with you, Brunty. take care.
# 5 RGH Says:
October 11th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Great pictures, sad to see the trees gone, now there will be nothing to absorb the moisture and pollution, in days to come there will be a weeping and crying about flooding.

Here in the Arizona desert we are concerned with capturing all the water we can, trees are a good way to do that. Each square foot paved is a foot that water can’t be absorbed into the ground. That causes swift water runoff, which causes flash flooding, and fools being swept to their death trying to cross a wash.

Keep up the good work looking forward seeing the finished product. Though I know it will resemble any other city we’ve seen, power lines and stark walls of buildings, smoke and fumes from clonkers filling the air.

RGH

thenhbushman reply on October 12th, 2009 9:21 am:

hi RG. in general Taiwan gets enough water through the falling of typhoon rains every season. we don’t have to worry so much about capturing water. we do need to “capture” natural surroundings as Taiwan has been built up to a high degree. we have greater than the population of Australia living on this island in the Pacific and the more natural it looks the better (IMO). the tendency is to “improve” things with (for example) concrete river beds and stairs on mountain hiking trails. our trees being taken down is just another example of the building up of things here. the one good thing that they’re doing in our neighborhood is putting the power and other service lines under ground. thank goodness for that. thanks RG.
# 6 owshawng Says:
October 12th, 2009 at 7:26 am
MJ,

Some folks would call that progress. I think it’s sad to see the trees go. That street is going to look like just about all the other streets in Taiwan outside of East Taipei. It’s like the starbuckification of the world continues.

thenhbushman reply on October 12th, 2009 9:23 am:

owshawng, “progress” is one of those words that is double-edged. i’m all for progress as long as we don’t go backwards on other fronts. oh well, you can’t fight City Hall, right? thanks.