Orange Barrels Followed Me Home !!!

As if road construction season isn't bad enough when commuting to work or running errands, I now get the joy of dealing with construction right in front of my house. The city is replacing the sewers and storm drains, which needs to be done, but from what I hear from friends this is not going to be fun and it will seem as if the project will never end.

They showed up Friday and punched holes in the cement to break it up, and then on Saturday they came and removed all the pavement on one side of the street. Don't I have a lovely view from my front window? I couldn't figure out what the weird blinking orange glow was on Friday night, and then I realized it was coming from the orange barrels.

This is my temporary dirt approach to the driveway, since there's about a foot dropoff between the end of my driveway and the dirt street below. They didn't fill it in well enough though because when I backed out this morning I scrapped my front bumper on the cement. You can see some of the scratch marks I left on the cement. Backing out is a bit tricky because there isn't much maneuvering room at all.

The orange paint is where the gas company came and marked my gas line AFTER the city crew snagged it and busted it. They had to turn off my gas and replace the gas line, so that was some added excitement in the neighborhood. Fortunately they didn't have to dig up my front lawn to replace it all the way up to the house. The gas company is afraid they'll snag the portion that is under the other side of the street when they remove that pavement as well. Hopefully this orange paint will remind them to be careful.  

They also cracked the base of my driveway in the process. I didn't think to take and "before" pictures but I'm going to start taking pictures to document any damages. I'm going to call the city and make sure they will be replacing the base of my driveway at no cost to me since their equipment cracked it. Which means they'll likely damage my sprinkler system in the process of removing this slab of cement. Oh joy!

I'm not sure how long it will take to replace all the sewers and such, but it's hard to get up and down the street when the trucks are on it and after they pour new cement I won't be able to use my driveway at all for several days. The city told us we just need to park elsewhere, but it's hard to find parking spots even within a few blocks of the house, and if everyone on the street is trying to relocate this will be a real pain, especially in inclement weather or when I need groceries. At least I will be at work when all the noise is going on and it'll be interesting to see what I come home to each evening.