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Montreal Paving Job Sparks Ridicule, Jokes Online

The construction company was apparently rushing to get the job done before a strike came into effect.

That’s all that anyone can say about this photo showing a shoddy paving job in Montreal.

The unsightly grey patch under a car parked illegally on René-Lévesque Blvd. showed up last Tuesday, a day before 175,000 construction workers in Quebec went on strike, according to CTV News.

So that meant that as of last Wednesday, no one was around to touch it up.

But while workers were off the job, people on social media were busy making jokes about the oversight.

Démix Construction, the paving company, defended its decision to go around the car in a statement obtained by Global News.

“Given the circumstances, it was preferable to continue the work by bypassing the vehicle that was inserted in the closure at the last moment than to wait for the towing services,” they said.

The company had been hired to fix up roads in preparation for the Formula E races in July, the Ville-Marie borough said in a statement to the Montreal Gazette. It was trying to get work done in a frenzy before the strike came into effect at midnight.

Of course, someone made it political

But a city councillor from the official opposition party told the Gazette he thinks this is indicative of Mayor Denis Coderre’s administration.

"The job was improvised, botched, poorly planned and poorly executed,” François Limoges said.

"We knew the Formula E races were coming for a long time. Why is it that we have a company working at the last minute, into the night on the eve of a general strike?"

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The strike itself is over as of Wednesday after the provincial government passed back-to-work legislation.

So it's entirely possible that the notorious spot has been paved over already.

But the Internet can't get enough of it. If you, too, are obsessed with this mismatching stretch of concrete, check out this very in-depth video from Global Montreal.

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