construction zone

 

we're getting new train stations at Moreland and Coburg and I have to say I have mixed feelings about them. The first thing was that they destroyed Gandolfo Gardens in order to build Moreland; the amount of times I spent sitting under those 100 year old trees. There were two possible solutions that could have avoided this that were popular with a lot of the locals, first being build the railroad underground and not up in the air. The other alternative was put the new station on the other side of the removed crossing. I guess we were guilty of living in the wrong electorate.

Once construction started there was not only a lot of noise but different types of noise. One morning my whole flat was vibrating intensely. Now I live a few houses away from Station Street so I an only imagine what the people living on that street were going through, let alone the houses next to the actual rail corridor. A number of families were housed in temporary accommodation to compensate for this.

The one phenomenon of this construction that has been amazing that is an upside that coincides with the lock down - kids. The abundance of cranes of every shape and variety has been like real life Tonka toys on steroids for local children in the area. One day, a posse of children on those bikes without pedals were grouped on the corner at the end of my street just staring in awe. I had a chat with one of the mothers who approached the company to find out the times when certain cranes were being used in order that the posse could watch them in action. Then one of the kids could barely hold his excitement

"this is the greatest thing since.... ever!!"

I really have never seen so many cranes in one place. One day i was talking to a traffic control person and I made an off the cuff remark,

"can you get any more cranes here?"

he pointed to the road behind me; a truck was arriving with three small cranes on the back.

now one aspect in all this was my repressed inner Tonka fan. There was this one large crane and every time I looked out the window it had moved to another spot. What I would give to see it actually move. A few days ago and it was gone. I was gutted.

the thing I hope for in all this is that they at least try to restore the Gandolfo Gardens to something that resembles its former self.