Night Highway Repair

I was a bit perturbed to see this monster outside my window the other night.  There had been some noise further up the road but I did not expect a Dinosaur type machine to look in on me.

He had disappeared by morning and much later on Friday evening he turned up again, along with several large trucks.  There was much to-ing and fro-ing by these vehicles, men in bright orange suits pointing fingers this way and that while the late shoppers at Sainsburys tried to get home.

Eventually, late on, they managed to get under way.  Grumbling re the state of the potholes has risen considerably in recent days.  The road here, once made stable by Roman soldiers giving it the name 'Stane Street,' now known by less happy terms as holes appeared everywhere.  The building of two blocks of houses on either side of the road did not help, Gas, Electric and Water all took turns in digging up the road and then doing it all over again for the other side of the street.  Then faults occurred and they had to do it all over again.  Some of the workers offered to camp in the park to save time coming and going!  The temporary patches put on the road after this did not go down well with the locals, many spleens were vented!  Being some 15 years or so since this was last resurfaced the County Council has decided to resurface now.  How long will this last I wonder?

Scrape the surface and dump it straight into the lorry in front.  The Roman soldiers slogging their way along the road would have loved this machine.  I wonder how much this costs?  I must say I have not been so fascinated with men working on the roads since I was coming up for 3.  Way back then I remember what I am sure was a steamroller used by the men creating the roads in our new housing estate.  Over the Brazier hung 'Tate & Lyle' syrup tins from a short improvised metal handle.  This was their tea!  No fancy mugs in those early 50s days. 

Being right outside my window I was not going to miss this, even though I was slouched in bed when they began.  Efficiently they removed the surface, slowly walking the great machine along, careful guiding required.  Alongside the men swept the pavement clean of dust, I had to do my own window, nose and throat myself, as they followed the craft alongside.  Quite why they all wore hard Hats when nothing was going to fall on their heads was not explained. 

The sky, being almost Mid Summer, was brilliant, deep red as the night wore on.  Well after 10:30 when I managed to take that shot.

 
See how clear it is at that time, the youths happily exchanging drugs unafraid of the police who cannot get past the men working on the road way.  Clearly this lot work together often, such teamwork requires practice.  Scraping the ground requires a truck to move in front of the machine while manoeuvring backwards and forwards to fill the truck evenly.  Then when laying the tar similarly a truck has to load the laying machine carefully, tipping it's load without covering everyone in road surface.

As the light faded various machines and men in yellow outfits wandered about.  Here they were working around an electric 'hole in the road,' doing their best not to destroy it.

Filling the beast while blurring my picture.

The first layer goes down, more to come tonight I understand, and it surprised me how hard the layer was.  The men walking on it left no impression behind.  The smell of tar is much better than the dust that was flying about earlier.

Such jobs involve much intense work followed by lots of standing about while the machine gets refilled, the men in charge discuss the next move, or some hold up arrives.  The workers appeared to get on well with the few people passing by.  The wage may be quite good, especially as most of the work is done at night.

What happened to the large machinery I do not know, I awoke to find this man running about and others painting temporary white lines in the road.   There is more disruption to follow but as far as I can see they have done it with little stress on others, not counting the Sainsburys lorry that arrived at the wrong time, and left little mess.  The cynics this morning still did not appear full of joy at the work.  I think they are hoping it fails so they can say "I told you so!"