The article is about the removal of _dead_ code. So, not a "fence across the road" - it's a fence that was moved to the side of the road, already cleared. The question is just whether to dismantle the fence or keep it there just in case.
That's worth explaining: it's automated code deletion, but the owner of the code (a committer to that directory hierarchy) must approve it, so it's rare there's ever a false deletion.