We Are Doomed

And that's not just the title of a great book by John Derbyshire.

We travel I49 fairly frequently. Over the last several months, we've watched workers installing some reasonably complex curb sidings along the outside of the breakdown lanes on each side.

These things are trapeziods of maybe 6' by 10' by 6' wide. All of them were dug out, had a stone base compacted into the hole and have a rebar grid installed prior to the pouring of about a yard of concrete.

I figured they would be for a sign.

The project is complete and we now know what they were for.

In the center of each of these concrete slabs that could support an auto lift, is a single mile marker sign.

And to top that off, there were already existing mile marker signs that they have since removed.

I49 is a bit over 200 miles long so thats 400 signs at probably $40 each, plus all the work to build the ludicrous bases. We're talking about a million dollar project or better to replace stuff that was in fine shape.

I'm betting it was "stimulus" money from the feds so it probably seemed like a good deal to the state, but it's still stupid.

If we can't even see what's worth doing, how can we expect anyone else to?