Have you seen the new Turre square?
Having had to close the place for… what… almost a year? (six month overrun as they forgot to put electric piping in and had to dig everything back up again) it’s only been open a week.
The concept is nice. Different colour cobbles to mark out pedestrian and car spaces. Dark grey for the cars, grey for pedestrian walkways, red for zebra crossings.
Trouble is, as usual, they didn’t think things through and skimped on the cost.
It’s already, one week after opening (and one week after a heckava rain storm) stained, mucky and sticky. Some young and enthusiastic fellow has christened the stones by seeing how long a skidmark he could produce on it. Chewing gum stains show up nicely.
And – get this – after putting the stones down, the Authorities realised they hadn’t put any road markings on the road, so they’ve gone and (badly) painted over the stones with road paint. Which will soon fade.
I shudder to think what this will look like in a years’ time.
Contrast this with the new entrance to Los Gallardos, which was done in the same fashion.
There, they’ve actually used different colour cobbles for all the road markings, so no paint on top of the nice new cobbles. Everything is nicely thought out and properly laid down, with several different colour of stone, clearly visible, showing road, car parking, zebra crossing and pedestrian walkways. A few large, carefully placed, plant pots (made out of iron, so I pity the fool who backs into them) ensure that drunk drivers don’t run over too many pedestrians.
All in all, a complete contrast between the two villages. It just goes to show what an important part a strong team in the Ayuntamiento does. Turre, which changes every few months, has sunk into obscurity and dirty poverity, versus Los Gallardos, which has had the same team since democracy kicked in (and before!), which goes from strength to strength.
Which brings me onto the new Avenue that’s still being planned, years after the original plans were made public.
Anyway, here’s a video released by Turre townhall showing how it was made.