This sort of thing would be absurd in some other country besides China, where it can be neatly filed under ‘business as usual.’
A railway overpass on the Beijing to Fuzhou high-speed rail line recently completed construction, and just happens to now loom over a residential complex in Shuangdun, a small town outside the Anhui capital of Hefei.
While the homes were all pre-sold in 2009, authorities handed down their chai edict only in April of last year. Some of the homes will obviously be destroyed, though their memory will live on in these ridiculous images.
Apart from the fact that it’s housing (which I suppose is significant) what’s the difference between that and “filling” the space below the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts with low-rise buidlings?
Or the building that sits below the south end of the Cambie Bridge?
Or the buildings that sit below the Granville Bridge on Granville Island?
Or the transit-oriented development that now envelops New Westminster Station?
Maybe it wouldn’t look so “odd” if there were more development flanking the guideway on each side?
Or is it the bias towards single family homes with acres of green space and a white picket fence that causes you to cringe at the the photos?
This is kind of what 3 Road in Richmond looks like since the Skytrain was built.