A Diary of a New Town
When they started paving the footpaths last winter, I was disappointed to see no space left for trees and shrubs on the main routes. Over the past two weeks, they’ve dug out the blocks in the middle of the wider paths and set up the borders for plants in the future.
I can’t believe that something this simple is not taken into account the first time round. I am happy however that it wasn’t overlooked altogether.
Looking fuller and more like a typical Kuwaiti suburb, Google Earth have updated again recently and the above is the current view. No new roads are visible, which means the next update will look much more complete. There are signs of the preliminary work done on the main routes.
If you’re interested in how it looked before, click here for how it looked in March 2007; and here for February 2009.
With the terrible weather and the extra heat associated with road-surfacing, there has been a lot of activity at night recently. I took these shots outside our house a couple of nights ago. They started working around midnight and finished just before 4am.
It’s not by any means difficult, but it’s a lot of work! I would also argue that in the current weather it’s barely legal. They do start very early though, and are done by 11:30am. The bitumen (black stuff at the end of the video) was applied Monday afternoon. This is before the layers of asphalt, that make up the actual road surface, will be added.
I’ve been wanting to do someting like this for many parts of Mangaf: Mosques and schools being built, roads under construction, and even houses appearing from holes in the ground. But unfortunately with the weather and dust (and time!) it’s almost impossible. My Canon G11 came to the rescue. I tied it to our bedroom window (from the inside) and kept it more-or-less in the same spot. Took some snaps of the men doing the various steps.
The work started sometime ago when tonnes of earth was removed. Then new sand was brought in and compacted onto the ground. The piping was done for the sewage and rainwater lines. Then the kerb was laid and manholes fixed in place. The process above comes after weeks of tweaking the area into the right levels, and completing the small jobs here and there. It is by no means a small job. In the pictures, you will also see the base for one of the street lamps to come. Transformation is almost complete.
The company is hard at work throughout the town. I would imagine it’s better to get the bulk of the work out of the way before the summer heat – and of course Ramadan!
I haven’t had a chance to speak to the project team, but I’m sure you’ve all seen the high activity this past week. The above video is of our ‘road’ shot earlier today.
It’s been a while since I posted and there have been many developments. The area is one big mess, but if you look at the big picture, it’s getting there… I can’t wait for all the mud to go and the noise of the heavy trucks and builders.
Instead of taking lots of photos, I took a short drive around block 1 (and a tiny bit of 2) and speeded up the boring bits. I will repeat this when there is a visible difference to the area I filmed.
Less than a year from now, this will be a memory and we will have a town that looks as boring as any other town in Kuwait 
I can’t wait.
In case you’re wondering, the background music is Les Hooper’s ‘Muddy Road’.
