Yesterday renovation works on the Petillon metro station have been partially completed! Partially means that the main entrance has been opened, while the rest of the station still looks like a blast from the past - glorious Belgian '60s.
When we moved to Brussels and found our current appartment, I have managed to use the main entrance of the metro only once and that was in February 2006. Now in March 2008 the metro station main entrance was reopened. It took them two years and one month, to do something that in my view was do-able in the worst case scenario in 9 months. But this is how employment is being generated and that is how you are introduced into pecularities of Belgian working culture (if there is such a thing).
I have raised a glass today for this beautiful occassion, not that it was particularly important in a personal or professional life, but it signifies a period of my life, where I was settling in Brussels, whereas now I feel that I am somewhat fully accustomed to the idea of living here and being part of a European bubble!
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4 comments:
hahahaa..
well, check my street.:) when i moved the last year, they had been doing the sewer system already for quite some time. then for a while it was closed and street wonderfully uneven and legbreaking, now in january it was opened again and now its mudlandscape. at least etterbeek locals promised that in now 1 week the sewer is done and by end of march the street looks nice..:D i tend not to believe this promsie..:)
What can I say - Welcome to Brussels and to Belgium!
At Tomberg they are changing the lamps since the beginning of the year, what I think could be in one week.
The problem is that some of us contribute to this so called Belgian working culture with half of the salary every month...
i read that in the netherlands repairing a 10k stretch of motorway can take, by law, no longer than 3 working days.
In Belgium, one particular stretch took around three years.
I would say that two years for a whole metro station is quite good going lol
Well, I am leaving not far away from this place and I must say that I agree with your point of view. It's quite unbelievable that such a work needs more than 18 months. In less time, a few meter away from the metro station, they have build three buildings in less time !
I took the liberty to make a link to your post from the website of the local community (www.comiteamitie.org). I hope you don't mind.
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