Pointless redevelopment

I say “bated”, never said “abated” in my life. Spelling? Dunno, never had to write it. Who cares, we all know what he meant. Knit pickers. There you go, there’s another one for you? Is it “nit” or “knit”? And on it goes.

Noticed a road in Mitchell had its stripes RE-striped the other day. I guess they had a slow day … re-development wise? Nothing, but I’m a bit worried ’bout Anzac Park West, as I worked in the basement in the 80s. Never knew it had asbestos until now. I’m still kicking so here’s hoping. Wonder if the security guard wears breathing gear?

Baited breath is when you accidentally eat the bait prawns instead of the $20 a kilo kingies.

I used prawns for bait in Ecumbene once and caught trout hahaha

If I recall, a new bus interchange for Belconnen was recently announced. This week they started repainting the old one.

Does anyone remember the paving they put around Civic in the 80s? They got rid of the fancy concrete, and laid quarry tile/brick things. These were the more exxy ones, tumbled with their corners knocked off, so when they were laid there were little gaps where the corners weren’t. The 80s featured a fashion for women to wear pencil-thin heels, both high and low. Walking on these pavers was a nightmare, everyone got their heels stuck in those holes, causing a lot of damage to shoes and great irritation at having your shoes grabbed by the ground.

So not long after laying the pavers, they all had to be taken up, and normal ones with intact corners were laid in their place. I wonder how much that little exercise cost all-up?

The old Burnie Court site at Woden is still fenced but no sign of development (lots of grass and trees)… It must be getting close to 5 years since the public housing was demolished. Two signs appeared 6 months ago suggesting a development would happen, but no real estate signs yet, so it must have stalled somewhere.

Aussiegal83 – Anzac Park West (and East buildings) are full of asbestos. They proably ran out of money to remove the asbestos safely, so the building refurbishment sits idle until the next budget cycle.

I call ’em “WorkWanks” but get told off for doing so. All men, apparently, wish to Bond with Blokes in fluro vests.

fabforty & ant – it is a constant irritation to me that around every building site fluro-vests ignore any parking signs and just park wherever the hell they want. “i own a ute with a giant ridiculous metal box bolted to the tray, i don’t have to pay for parking, i’ll just stick some of my fluro cones around my ute and it acts as a forcefield against parking inspectors”.

i used to live in a complex in turner and the fluro-vests working on a building site next door not only came and parked in our clearly marked private parking & visitor spots within our complex, therefore depriving residents and visitors of their parking, they also threw their freaking maccas and kfc dietary rubbish all over the ground and trampled the gardens because they were too lazy to even walk on designated paths and driveway. lazy freeloading !^!(&^#&!^&!@!!

Yeah, the blokes building the airport entrance beautification project all park their vehicles next to the mess, for free. Meanwhile, people working over the road at BBP have to pay for the privilige. Although I saw a cop in the afternoon writing something (a ticket?) for a blue Astra that was parked nose-down in a depression a bit further along from the building works, and a fluro-vest wearer was waving his arms around at the cop. Not sure what that was all about. Not sure those fluro-vest guys drive Astras.

I would like to know how builders in the City get away with fencing off huge areas, including footpaths etc mainly to provide themselves with free parking for the duration of the project. They seem to be able to park anywhere.

The site on Rudd Street is a classic.

Is there any reason builders are entitled to free parking at work where everyone else isn’t ? I suspect they aren’t paying FBT for the privilege.

“Got a reference for that figure?”
you’re right caf, my guess was flawed. It’s probably more like 80%

The barriers stopping me walking up the hill and rolling back down at parliment house.

Anzac Park West. They did a bit of a refurb in early 06. The bloody thing has sat there empty ever since. The fences are still up around it and they pay a security guard to sit in a deserted building 25/7.

“Got a reference for that figure?”

48.9% of stats are made up on the spot anyway…

Got a reference for that figure?

GDE……The extra cost to do it properly now would have been 20% of the added cost to fix/upgrade it a couple of years from now.

hehe this post and comments gave me a giggle because it’s all true!

canberra really does, for the most part, have great roads though. every time i drive in sydney i’m surprised my car’s axle doesn’t snap in two from all the pothole shocks!

Ari said :

Jazz, that’s twice in two days so I have to speak up.

“Bated” breath (a variant of “abated”), not “baited”.

I never knew that. Thanks ;). Lucky i’m not a journalist.

You beat me to it, Ari. 😉

Some background info: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbated.html

Jazz, that’s twice in two days so I have to speak up.

“Bated” breath (a variant of “abated”), not “baited” … unless you have severe halitosis.

The brand new intersection, complete with traffic lights, on Flemington Road Harrison with Wells Station Drive. About to be opened up. Then after the $20M budget allocation to 4-lane Flemington Road, all about to be ripped up again – estimated life – about a year.

They recently spent ages replacing the tiles outside our building in Civic – they seemed fine to me beforehand. A few weeks later the new tiles started cracking…

The best I have seen kicks in whenever there is a move within buildings in the public service. A Branch is relacated and is replaced by a new Branch. Quick! All the directors need offices! Turn some of the corrals into office space! Push the desks closer together! There’s no room left for our filing cabinets so let’s knock out an internal wall to make more space. 3 months later – we’re moving again.