A Diary of a New Town
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.
Photo by BitJockey. More here.
I arrived this morning from a business trip. When I read on 248am and Nicole B blogs about a spill near the North Pier, I headed straight to the beach and saw the action there. There were two security cars. Having just arrived from 12 hour flight, the last thing I wanted to do is argue about taking photos. I chickened out – so please click the links in this post for more information.
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.
Well… no lights, but the lamp posts are up. I can’t believe these people have to work in these temperatures! It was boiling today.
Mangaf is starting to take shape – despite the mess.
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.
