Morning all!

Since I moved here in late April it seems like they've been slowly working their way around the whole of Zurich City digging up the main roads and confusing public transport. This of course affects everyone and is not my complaint, but there are some works right outside my bedroom window and almost every morning they make as much noise as possible between 7 am and 8 am (I'm talking pneumatic drills, shouting and some kind of steam-emitting machine), and then when I come home during the day all is calm. I find this quite annoying, especially since even recycling on a Sunday is forbidden for fear of disturbing those who apparently like to have a nice lie-in in the surrounding factories

Forgive me for my ignorance and temporary lack of German skills (and consequent inability to ask a local), but does anyone know what the b'jeezus they're doing? Is it like this every year?!

If it's the roadworks around the northern end of Langstrasse you're talking about, they've been replacing all the water and sewer pipes and relaying the roads to make it partially pedestrianised... they have finished Josephstrasse and have almost finished Neugasse on the other side of Langstrasse.

The work needs doing and it'll be a massive improvement once it's all finished. Not much you can do about it but wait till it's finished.

Thanks for the info! Is that what's going on in Bahnhofstrasse as well? I don't doubt for one moment that it's all necessary stuff, but my personal gripe is more about works around Höngg. Smaller scale, but very noisy.

On Bahnhofstrasse they're basically putting in new tram tracks, that's the most important bit. But I think they also did some work on sewers and things. When it's all finished they'll be putting the trees back, well not the same ones of course. And while they're at it they're making it all a bit more pedestrian freindly and de-cluttering the random mish-mash of incompatible designs of street furniture that Bahnhofstrasse seems to have acquired over the years. So I guess it's the urban planning equivalent of the wife deciding we need new curtains and we end up changing the wallpaper and furniture to match.

I've lived in Zürich 8 years now - and trust me there is never a time where there's not a large amount of road/building work going on.

Zürich is a city that is simply not, and never will be, finished

You'll be suggesting they replace infrastructure before its scheduled "end of life" rather than letting it crumble until the cost to replace is even greater

AFAIK Bahnhofstrasse is not for the rails but to take out the old trees, install concrete lined "planter", put in replacement trees, and make good. In an attempt to prevent the trees doing damage to their nicely laid rubber insulated rails which went in <10 years ago

Haha!!

Ok, I suppose I'll just get used to it then Better than leaving these things to go to wrack and ruin. Thanks all!

Each canton has a fixed number of road and related workers, including the orange-jacketed traffic direction people. This is a standard part of the Swiss Federation agreement, whereby a certain number of jobs are guaranteed by each canton. So the roadwork planning simply goes on the availability of the crews, and whenever there's a possibility of them being between jobs they'll be allocated a new bit of road to dig up and remake, possibly with changes, possibly just with a new service, but the important thing is that they must be constantly employed somewhere.

Clearly this can cause problems in some cantons with fewer roads, so an elaborate road-sharing program has been created, whereby each canton assumes responsibility for a certain portion of the road network, whether in their own canton or not. So this explains why so many of the roadworkers are thought of as foreigners - they're actually Swiss, but a Walliser working on a portion of the roads in St. Gallen that have been assigned to Wallis, for example, is about as foreign as it gets.

There was a plan to extend this concept to the policing of each part, but they couldn't agree on how to deal with offences committed in one canton whose responsibility lay with another, so this proposal was abandoned.

They usually have to resprect certain noise regulations i.e. they are only allowed to produce a lot of noise during fixed time slots. There are construction works going on at my place of work at the moment. The workers are allowed to use the big noisy machines only between 7 and 9 am (with exceptions.....). But workers can produce an amazing amount of noise with just a little hammer...

A friend of mine lives by the roadworks at Neugasse in Kreis 5 and the workers start the machines at 7.02 and make a hell of a racket for about 30 minutes before what seems like an hours break for breakfast before carrying on at 8.30.

That's one thing that I just don't understand.

I guess coming from UK where repair of infrastructure is an alien concept, it must be diffuicult for you to uderstand about people maintaining roads and the such like.

Get over it !

I put it down to the Swiss building their way out of any economic crisis, good time to export in aggregate and materials etc. and keep the construction work force busy.


On the flip side to that, I have had the Durchmesser rail construction outside of my apartment for 5 years, including night work, but I wont budge, as our rent is so low that it would be madness. Stock up on Oralpax earplugs and an eye mask and on some sleeping pills if you can get them


Nothing worse then a hangover with pneumatic drills hammering away outside.

It's not a hangover unless you feel like there's pneumatic drills hammering away on the inside.

If you still think you're hearing the pneumatic drills now that the tunnel is finished, I would recommend re-assessing your work-partying balance.

There is always work on public transport to be done, and repairs/updating of the infrastructure. The trouble is that right now many of the workers get out for holidays, which means that the "building season" will stretch, as usual, into December

Nope, track replacement is one of the goals.

The official website of the Bahnhoftrasse refurbishment says:

Roughly translated:
Since April 2013, on Bahnhofstrasse the tram rails are being replaced and the tram stops rebuilt to be handicapped-accessible. At the same time, by using new, consistent design elements, Bahnhofstrasse will receive a new appearance befitting the calling card of our city.

This is an old tradition. Except that it in the past was an hour earlier. Just a century ago, a mason of leftwing conviction did the same in Schaffhausen and Zürich. The name of the young socialist ? Benito Mussolini

How do you know these things? I'm just curious and amount of detailed info you know about zurich. I'm asking cause I feel I just know What I need to know but would love to know more about it.

Aha! I knew they had to be digging holes just to keep busy. They're even at it out on the edges of the city where the roads are all new (maybe a few years old).

Road works in Zurich might take indefinite period of time - please wait until further notice will be announced!



In the meantime, please use alternative mean of transportation and join us! We are doing what we can!



Thank you for your patience!