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and graded—then, one day, the work just stopped. Grass and weeds took over the roadbed;
then, various shrubs; finally, little saplings started to shoot up.
Someone explained to us that large road contracts like this one were always divided up
among multiple companies to diminish the risk of corruption and nepotism. (Wasn't the
road to hell also paved with good intentions?) So, each company gets to build a couple
miles of road along with a bevy of other companies, each working independently doing
the same thing. One consequence of this approach is that instead of starting at one end and
working diligently to get the first few miles open, all the work along a thirty-mile stretch
proceeds in parallel, and traffic is disrupted everywhere along the length of the project.
One or two segments somewhere in the middle are inevitably completed before the others,
so everyone gets to drive fast for two minutes before the road returns to a single lane and
traffic piles up again.
Even worse, to avoid corruption the contracts are awarded based on sealed bids submitted
to the managing public agency. The company that wins the contract typically farms out
the work to a sub-contractor. The sub-contractor then does the same, and on it goes until
someone comes along who is either naïve enough or desperate enough to attempt working
on the actual project. The company that had been working on the stretch of road leading
into Siena where the saplings were growing had gone belly-up. Between the completion of
litigation procedures and the organization of a new bidding cycle, years elapsed.
Whatever the system of shared values may be that organizes and sustains such projects, it's
safe to say that efficiency is a very minor god in the pantheon.
***
The year we took title to our place in Tuscany, I had an opportunity to visit Italy in the early
spring. After a brief training engagement with Sun Microsystems in Scotland, I piggy-
backed a weeklong excursion to Italy onto the trip so that I could get things ready for our
family's arrival the following summer. The major furniture items were already in place;
all that was left were miscellaneous acquisitions like towels and sheets and curtains, along
with the standard move-in tasks of getting basic services turned on and put into our name.
The phone company was not willing to let me put the phone bill in my name over the
phone, but instead expected me do it by mail. They told me that a letter would come in
about two weeks with forms for me to fill out and return. I pleaded that I was only here for
a week. Wasn't it possible for me to come to their offices in Siena and fill out the forms
there in the next couple of days?
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