There are a number of fully grown men who rise every working day with a smile on their faces, and they leave their homes in the dark in great expectation, eager to get back to work. They are those men who spend each day working with, or perhaps playing with is more appropriate, some of the seriously mega-trucks and machinery there is. These men are road builders, dam builders, and constructors of major buildings.
It’s difficult to get anything more than a grunt from one of those guys when one talks of job satisfaction and enjoyment. That is the real giveaway. They don’t want to admit that they are so happy in their work that they would happily pay the company to come to work, if that were economically sensible.
Ever give a thought as to what went into the making of that smooth ribbon of road that is such a joy to drive on? Probably not! Why should you, there are so many other things vying for your attention. As I write this there is so much road works in progress throughout Spain, I decided to take a day to go out and take stock of what it takes to put down a super highway.
Firstly, it is one of the dirtiest jobs a man could ever love. There’s white dust, light brown dust, dark brown and red dust It’s everywhere and is a constant. The first piece of indispensable equipment is the water tanker whose job it is to drive over the site constantly spraying a fine mist of water in a vain effort to keep dust to a minimum. This is as much for the workmen as it is for the general public.
Currently, the CV-35, otherwise known as the Autopista de Ademuz is undergoing some major work. Essentially what is being done is to add another lane to the existing two lanes each direction that go from Valencia City out to Lliria and beyond. The road will by-pass Casinos and eventually link up with the A-3 Madrid - Valencia road. Along the way, a new hospital is being built to serve Lliria and the region. Also rumoured will be a leisure centre that will boast, among other facilities an indoor ski slope to operate all year round.
Once all the preliminary work has been done, such as deciding where the new road will go, and future needs factored in, then the heavy earth moving equipment moves in. I pity those people who find the road moving closer to their road front homes. The array of equipment involved is quite astonishing, as is the skill on show to properly handle each piece. This may be a bit monotonous, but you will no doubt be surprised by the list of equipment: Bulldozers, scrapers, rippers and trenchers, backhoe loaders, crawler tractors, ditchers, multi-terrain loaders, Hydraulic excavators, forest machines, Cold planers, Pipe layers, graders and levellers, skid steer loaders, track loaders, Bobcats, underground mining equipment for through-mountain passes, wheel dozers, wheel excavators, pile drivers, concrete delivery trucks, compactors and tamping equipment, soil stabilizers, articulated trucks of ten, sixteen and twenty wheelers, bucket lifts, asphalt paving equipment, just to name a few, and, my favourite, the off-road giant dumpster trucks. Oh! What I would give to be able to wheel one of those things around all day.
Most of the equipment I have noted is made by Caterpillar, and their largest model 797 Off -Highway super truck is so huge that if I parked my Volvo saloon car alongside one of its wheels, the top of my car would not even reach half the height of the wheel. Its maximum capacity transports 327 metric tons of earth at one time. I have no idea what to compare that with except to imagine an army of men with buckets as far as the eye could see to do the equivalent.
As a child I played with toy equipment of this nature. I spent so many enjoyable hours either on my own, or better yet with a friend as we made little roads and cleared spaces for this or that. I think that the best that we as males can do is grow into a grown-up version of our childhood playthings, if we are lucky. If the truth be told, that’s why we so hope for our children to give us grand children. Then, we get to play with trains and giant dumpster trucks again without being thought senile.
Please don’t overtake on two-way road systems. Save your life for those who love you.
Copyright (c) 2007 Eugene Carmichael
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