So when the Golden Gate Bridge starts to fail, some west coast contractors are just gonna get together and slap it back together? Same with roads and water systems and codes and safety standards be damned? That's just silly.
No argument on scale the GGB may be far beyond the level of an average group of citizen volunteers but unlike others here I'm glad you brought it up. The GGB from it's emotional appeal (tourism, symbology) seems a worthy cause and the fact that people choose to move and live off the main shore on a pennisula, the bridge seemed a worthwhile endeavor. However, when you look at the best allocation of resources and the amount of continuing resources needed to sustain such endeavor, the entire effort does raise numerous questions. Also one should read history as well in that why the bridge was built, who wanted it and who profitted and compare that to the industrious local citizens in Hawaii who obviously profitted from their road and bridge but took it upon themselves to take on the direct challenge. Whether they were perfect in what they did or holding to some idealic principle is up for debate but the fact that they didn't wait on someone else to "cook their food and turndown their bed" is worth noting, study and discussion.
The real point of the original post not only to make fun of how SSSSLLOOOOWWW gov't road crews can be at time, (more often than not the problem is the local planners not the crews) was the very point that "littleboybrown" made. He flat nailed it dead on the money!
There's a lot more that could be said about the GGB and other such endeavors of large scale but I'll leave that for another time and place.
BTW: I have no proof of this whatsoever but what if another interest better connected than those local Hawaii businesses were behind the scenes encouraging the local commissars to "drag their feet" on behalf of another economic interest who would benefit it those businesses went bye-bye?
