Editorial: fix your own mess

Photo: Urmas Nemvalts

Remember «Chief Crossing of Central Estonia», festively finalised four years at Mäo with $30m spent?  Five-year warranty time ticking, holes abound...

The work accomplished for European Cohesion money is, let’s put it straight, very poorly built.

Not the only mess, though: as apparent in Road Administration audit, out of 11road sections studied ten were found faulty.

Now, the builders stand faced with hefty expenses fixing the mess and removing underlying causes to holes and other disrepair.

It’s a broader issue: whoever makes or builds anything ought to ask himself, if it can be used. In other words: a driver, not setting out to navigate potholes and avoiding pools of on-the road-water, just dreams of a smooth ride.

With errors and faults, two universal aspects apply.

First: we all make them. Second: the first step toward amendment is owning up to messes made. The latter, the builders aren’t overly eager to do. Instead, they prefer saying the projects are large and every firm does its part – while requirements and norms have changed over time.

Still, the problems cannot have come as surprise to doers of the work – some, at least, surfaced during the building process. Why these weren’t dealt with, let the companies now tell us.

And also: how come the work was officially approved? As alluded by former Road Administration chief Tamur Tsäkko, supervision data may have been falsified. Let’s remember that – and expect investigations.