Construction site hurdles

A prank on the Wienerberg municipal construction site

Behind bars: the entire municipal building(Bild: Lukas Zimmer)

Construction work makes crossing the narrow Unter-Meidlinger-Straße an absurd obstacle course. If you are a good walker, it "only" takes several minutes to get from one side of the street to the other. For everyone else, the distance of around ten meters has become insurmountable.

Unter-Meidlinger-Straße in front of the "Am Wienerberg" municipal building is around ten meters wide. If you walk briskly, you can cross it in two minutes and 15 seconds. This is due to the absurd construction site planning when the street section was redesigned. The entire alleyway, including the sidewalk, was closed off at once without any need.

Impenetrable labyrinth of barriers
This makes it virtually impossible for the many elderly residents in particular to walk from their homes into the city. Even the AUVA accident hospital in Meidling, although only 300 meters away, is now virtually unreachable. For Freddy B., a resident of the municipal housing estate, "the building site borders on abnormal". He is annoyed by the "labyrinth of barriers" and says that it is no longer possible to speak of common sense.

In any case, work is only being carried out on one part of the road at a time. An interim path across the road, with slabs for example, is still missing.(Bild: Lukas Zimmer)

The entrance to the municipal building is visible from opposite, but still inaccessible(Bild: Lukas Zimmer)

Construction site fencing wherever you look(Bild: Lukas Zimmer)

Where there is no will, there is no way
Nowhere on the construction site are there any signs showing how to get into the municipal building, let alone information for drivers heading towards Kundratstraße. There would have been plenty of alternatives, such as alternately digging up only one half of the alley or using slabs to create a temporary path across the road.

 "Anything goes if you want it to," said one of the construction workers on site when asked by the "Krone" about the way the construction site was planned. Freddy B. also asked the site foreman why the road was completely closed. The foreman only replied: "The city of Vienna has arranged it that way."