The mystery of why builders in Moscow were painting bricks onto the pavement, rather than laying real ones, has been solved.
As it turned out, the workers were acting on the orders of their bosses, who discovered cables under the pavement which could not be covered with bricks. The bosses thought long and hard and decided to cover them with concrete instead – because they could not leave the pavement destroyed.
“We had a strict order not to ‘spoil the historic view of the capital,’ and as there was no technical decision and no one knew what to do with the problematic part of the pavement, we decided to imitate the bricks in the way we could,” chief engineer Sergey Yakshov was quoted as saying by Newsru.com. “The workers were just doing what they were told to do.”
Pictures of their creative endeavors went viral on the internet, prompting speculation that the city had run out of money for its controversial pavement makeover. Media reports suggested that it was the initiative of the workers.
The “problematic part of the pavement” has been removed; what will happen to the builders or their bosses is not yet known.
Meanwhile, City Hall is planning to lay out an extra 3 million rubles on its controversial pavement renovation campaign.
The money will be used to control the quality of the bricklaying. Builders had to start again from scratch on several sidewalks after the authorities were unhappy with their work. The project has already cost Moscow 2 billion rubles.