A current fad in this country is for individuals or groups to try to establish world records for participating in some activity that represents the biggest, the most, the fastest, the longest, etc.

Just recently, Lawrence residents interested in encouraging more people to engage in some kind of physical exercise staged a gathering at Kansas University’s Shenk Fields that they hoped would break the record for a group workout. It seems there is some effort to break a record about every day somewhere in the United States.

Perhaps there is a chance for Lawrence to capture a world record for how long a construction company can take to dig a relatively small ditch, replace curbing, repair or replace driveways and patch a small section of street. The current project on Iowa Street just south of Harvard Drive would seem to be a strong contender for the title.

The ditch-digging, curb work and driveway repair at that site has held up traffic for months. It is difficult to understand why this project has taken so long. Perhaps some kind of monetary incentive would have encouraged the contractor to add workers or work longer hours to finish the job more quickly.

Unless there are some special difficulties with this job, it has stretched out far too long. City officials, or perhaps state highway officials, can’t be pleased with how long it has taken to complete this project.