On Sep 10, 7:40*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:53:05 +0200, Bill Hayles
wrote:

On Wed, 9 Sep 2009 19:28:26 +0100, Steve Fitzgerald ]
wrote:
Arrival at Barcelona this afternoon just reinforces my assertion that
they are currently rebuilding Spain.

It's all to do with the recession. The bottom has dropped out of the
domestic housing market (especially that catering mainly for foreigners)
and so the building industry has a surfeit of workers of all skill
levels desperate for jobs at any salary; hence the civic projects can be
carried out more cheaply, and are being pushed ahead whilst the
situation lasts.

There are some Spanish practices the rest of Europe could learn from
(but then I'm biased, as Spain is my adopted country).

Care to elaborate as their ability to construct metro, tram and train
lines in next to no time (relatively speaking) is something I would
dearly love to understand? *There must be something in the planning,
regulatory or construction methodologies that allows them to make such
quick progress.

Not an expert, but: empty country, cheap land, cheap labour?

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org