Cyprus-Forum.com

[tcklim]

I can never quite judge how big Lausanne is as compared to Limassol? They have approximately the same population though.... they also share the Cypriot affinity for digging up roads t'is true.... The M2 isn't causing too much havoc except under that bridge leading away from St. Francois to Belair.... M2 will be a heck of a timesaver though, too bad I graduate it the year it opens. What's your connection to Lausanne?

Anywayz, please excuse me while I go on abit of a bitching spree about local roadworks, and I speak mostly for Limassol here. The council does deserve its share of praise. Limassol has been transformed by the "completion" of the much more attractive seaside road. The only gripe I have is with the disorganization around it all. When it all started, for example, planting tiny baby palm trees that block the entire pavement forcing you to either bend down under them to push them away and possibly risk whacking some poor hapless pedestrian walking behind you with a palm branch flinging backwards.

Also, in Cypriot construction, they never seem to finish what they start. For example, the seaside road near the Limassol Zoo. The sidewalk on the beach road, for some inconceivable reason, suddenly disappears for a couple of 100 meters before suddenly reappearing again. In the meantime, you are I assume expected to trample through the mud to make ur way to the bicycle path or continue venturing across the ground till the sidewalk magically reappears. When they dig, they should really cover it back up the way it was before.... the sidewalk opposite that building that is being renovated (used to be Sunny beach, has been under conversion for no joke maybe 2 years and a half now), has a big huge hole in it filled with sand.... while the rest of the sidewalk is coloured tiles. ??? It's a shame because the seaside road could be very nice. When they finish the roads, it would also be nice not to leave weeds, roots and abandoned equipment littering the islands in the middle and on the side.... really ugly stuff. E.g. the newly finished flyover opposite orphanides is just a mess to look at under it....

Oh well apart from that, it is unbelievable the rate at which Cyprus seems to be expanding.... remembering it as it was just 6 years ago, diff. place..... congrats to that... still lotsa work to do though.

[mraussie_in_cyprus]

Personally, it's the state of the rubbish along the roads that I find depressing, rather than the road surfaces. Some of the sights you see are incdredible (and not in a good way). OK - other country's highways aren't exactly pristine, but come on now. Does anybody here ever take rubbish to a tip? I suppose it's *so* more convenient to tip it down the nearest hill. Streuth, no wonder the tourists are desterting the place in droves. Shame really, could be quite a nice place otherwise. Did a quick search on this forum for 'litter' and 'rubbish' and am amazed that the topic doesn't seem to have been discussed much at all.

[pumpernickle]

and thus I rest my case.

Although to be fair, this has nothing to do with the quality of road surfacing as per my thread.

The guy was drunk and fell asleep at the wheel and careered into me from behind. Nice.

Just thought I'd mention. Nice thing to happen on a friday arvo! Luckily, my car, despite its cheap as chips nature and timidity, is an utter tank, and escaped with a mere scratch on the bumper.

The guy who back ended me not so lucky. A mouth full of teeth and blood, a smashed windscreen, a crumpled bonnet, destroyed radiator and water pump and obliterated wings and bumper. Carnage. Poor guy, I sorted him out with water and a chair from a nearby cafe till the ambulance and feds arived.

side topic: driver safety and standards and drink driving.

but back to Svetlana's remark about road taxation...this is a good point but fails to answer what I was getting at. The roads have had the big budgets allocated already and the work is in progress. I am arguing that the workmanships and quality of work and materials are uneccesarily poor and the work is done badly and in time frames that are unacceptable.

I know about that road that leads to the port. I drove on it in 2002 when I was here with my family. One minute I'm driving a Rover Metro at 80km/per hour down a stretch of motorway in pitch black darkness. The next, without notice, the road runs out of tarmac and i'm screwed.

Sheer incompetence. All that needs to be done is a bit of clever consultancy work to ensure good standards and methods are adhered to, and that budgets are spent properly.

Trust me, I'm a civil servant by trade. I know all about dumb bureaucracy.