Dragging Stormwater Drain Work

On June 3rd, they shut off the access to the road from our house, allowing only a plank to pass through the hole excavated for the replacement stormwater drain. For about 3 weeks, I couldn't leave the house, and the construction work has been moving at a snail's pace, with the sidewalls of the drain still not poured with concrete. 

Our row of residences has commercial shops, including my cousin's bike service station and uncle's garage, that are inaccessible by cars due to rotten planks. The pit extends to the bottom of our elevator. Thankfully, they didn't touch its earth, and we had a keen eye on it the entire time the excavator dug the hole. 

It is a project taken up by the Chennai corporation to line up stormwater drains throughout the city before the start of the northeast monsoon in October. Although it would be a long-term solution and crucial for flood prevention, many of the neighborhood's roads are currently in this phase, and the residents are experiencing the same difficulty. 

They had only just begun work on our street, and they hadn't even completed a 100-foot section of the drain in the previous three weeks. Based on the rate at which they work, it must take at least two months to fix our street's stormwater drain, which was installed 35 years ago. My mother used to say that when I was a kid, I yearned to step foot into the hole they excavated for the first time. I don't remember, but we used to walk back from school on the platform over the stormwater drain. 

I'm hoping they built at least the piece of us that was dug in a week, and we, too, need to work on masonry and modify the elevator before I'm hoisted down and moved out. Until it's home, and this hasn't caused any difference in my life, it's almost homebound. COVID has already cut two years off our lives, and this month isn't going to be any different.