Spruce Street Paved

Spruce Street in the Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia has been a torn-up mess for about two months. The streets people had ripped up the pavement and scraped the street with what looked like giant fork tines. There were huge grooves in the road and the manhole covers were sticking up high enough that cars were really getting slammed on them. So, I was pleased when I saw these steamrollers parked at 18th and Spruce yesterday afternoon. Little did I know what would be in store.

At 12:30 a.m. I heard a siren and a loud announcement. At first the blaring from the speaker was muddled, but as a construction van came down Spruce Street the message was clear: IF YOU HAVE A CAR PARKED ON SPRUCE STREET IT WILL BE TOWED IMMEDIATELY. That message, accompanied by a siren to fill the space between repeats, had to have been at 120 decibels. Some poor suckers got up and moved their cars. Others got towed.

I do have to give credit to the work crew for fixing the road in the middle of the night, though. 2:45 in the middle of the night, but during the night. Have you ever heard how rumbling and loud a steamroller can be at 2:45 a.m.? Grrrrrrrrrr.



Anyway, here's the handiwork. I went outside at 7 a.m. to snap this picture of Spruce Street's new coat (this shot is from near the corner of 18th looking toward 17th). Already the horns were honking this morning. (How likely do you think it will be that the taxi drivers follow those lines they painted on the road?)