The curbstone ghost

In August strange things started to happen in Moscow. Kilometres of curbstones were removed in all parts of the city leaving behind remarkable gaps in public sidewalks. After some time it became obvious to newbies like me that there was some bigger behind these activities. After some weeks bunches of new curbstones pilled up all over the place (pictured above) reinforced my conclusion that yet another large scale infrastructure project is currently implemented. Somebody must have told them that new curbstones will make Moscow a better place to live in. There is problem pressure indeed, the two pictures below depict common sidewalks in Moscow:

Two explanation for policy-making may apply: ahead of FIFA’S word Championship next year somebody must have told government that new curbstones will Russia look like Germany. A 5-year long term infrastructure plan is an alternative explanation. The timing may have come by random. I have not figured out the name of the underlying program, but I will.

Future curbstone-fixing program may finetune two details of program implementation: first, sequential implementation (street after street) is better than simultaneous one (plowing up all streets at once); second, if you replace curbstones you will have to fit them into very well (otherwise they will get out of place soon).