Weekly local government rant

OK, so Wanneroo is finally getting around to doing some more bike-path work... on a section already adequately covered by paths, but which I am assured happens to be near a councillor’s house. Nevertheless, it is bike-path work.

Part of the work consists of turning a short section of old road immediately north of Ocean Reef Road into a bike path. It’s in pretty good nick for its age, with only one small strip suffering from potholes and irregularities.

The work probably looks good on a blueprint, but they’ve just destroyed a parking area which often has 2 or 3 vehicles in it during the day while their drivers take a refreshing stroll around Lake Joondalup, and from which a flower van regularly trades.

Yeah, well, par for the course... but in chipping away most of the bitumen to leave a bike-path-sized strip, have a guess at which narrow strip they’ve left untouched?

Yes, it’s pretty much inevitable that it’s the strip of potholes and irregularities, not the good road. And of course, the potholes and irregularities probably followed one narrow strip (and not the tyre-wear regions) for a very good reason; my guess is that the foundations for the road were laid down in two adjacent swathes, and the strip represents the poorly-made join between them. What does this imply for the on-going quality of the future cycle path?

However, what gets up my nose is that they’re not working on one of the many areas which are devoid of any more substantial a path than sand and leaf litter.

Comments

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Plantagenet Penguinista

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