I’m trying to distract myself from some bad news right now, so bear with me.

I was thinking about our most recent winter tyres thread, and how pathetic we are in the UK at dealing with snow. Then I thought about Montreal, and the accolades it has won from other snow-laden cities worldwide for its incredible snow-removal operations.

Going from this

and this

via an amazingly choreographed operation that looks like this

to this

in a matter of a few hours.

Can you think of any other genuinely amazing feats of infrastructural management anywhere in the world?

Finally, for your viewing pleasure… 😀

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT_1U1rCkCY[/video]

Bridges are infrastructure, yeah?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B9QBG-OUg[/video]

Its a comparatively modest/ discrete operation but I really like the
Bouches de lavage in Paris

I also quite like Stockholm’s telecoms circa 1887

I also like (maybe not ‘like’ exactly) the way Los Angeles is built on a working oil field

that’s just so he can fill up his limo surely?

The street cleaners that come out at about 5am at Playa las Americas in Tenerife to clear up after all the p’d up Brits that littered their streets. The families trundling down to the beach a couple of hours later were blissfully ignorant about the puddles if vomit and pi$$, countless fag and joint ends, discarded cans and bottles of booze and condoms that littered the streets a few hours before. It was a well coreographed routine. Happy days!

I’ll nominate Westminster’s post event clean up team.

The way they clear up after big events overnight is superb. Same applies for the City people for the marathon clean up. As with Westminster it’s all gone in a flash overnight.

Oddly the moment you cross in to Tower Hamlets on the day after the marathon, there’s litter everywhere. The contrast is stark.