Pictures from the Northern Motorway extension

[Dave Ross]

#2410

Recently Dave invited people to have a look at the motorway construction. I took him up on the offer. What followed was a highly interesting 2 hours covering the construction earthworks from just past the roundabout at the current end of the motorway to the other side of the tunnels.I have plenty of pictures, but not really the time to give much of a commentary. Maybe Dave will jump in if there are any questions. So here it goes:A sedimentation pond, designed to hold the run-off and let the contaminants settle. (Dave, jump in anytime to correct me, as I didn't take notes) This is no ordinary grader. It is GPS controlled and guided by a computer map that controls the setting of the blade.View northDave had to advertise our position every no and then so we wouldn't get accidentally squashed.I suspect some of these photos are out of sequence.The next photo shows the length they have to go to in order to stabilize the foundation that hold up the soil for the bank that carries the outer lane. The inner lane was cut into the hill.View of a bridge that crosses an ecologically sensitive area. on the bridgebelow the bridgethis area has its own irrigation system due to the rain shadow of the bridgeTo be continued....

[Dave Ross]

#9289

The bridge seen below is a single lane bridge that was build to connect privately owned land that would otherwise have been separated. What's interesting about it is that it was constructed on the surface of the land, on temporary supports. Later the soil beneath it was excavated and the temporary supports removed. Of course the support was not removed until the actual steel support had been installed.This stump remains from the temporary support.Support foundationsThe space beneath the bridge still has to be excavated another 12m to bring it down to road leve.Stay away from these guysThe digger shown below also get's his instruction via computers and GPS.My hostanother enginee... ahem a vistor 😉On to the next bridgewith a good view to Hatfields Beachbelow you can see the replanting that is being doneHere we are looking at the segments..that make this bridgethat leads into this tunnelThis hole needs to be filled to bring it up to bridge level. It will only take 6 weeks or so, but you need the big toys for the job. Trust me, this is not a Tonka truck.I hope you've enjoyed your tour around the building site. I hope I got most things right. I forgot to mention that there will be a tool booth that will photograph your license plate as you drive past, so that you can be invoiced automatically. I am sure this method will eventually catch on with other government departments. Well, it was/is a costly project and no slugs were harmed and very few twigs were snapped during the construction, your tax dollar made sure of that. Actually, I fully support this attitude towards construction if it is truly warranted. Let's hope it was. Thanks for the tour Dave.

[Anonymous]

#9290

Well done, Alex!You pretty much nailed everything.  You must have really been paying attention!  Bad news for the dirt bikers though.  We placed our first asphalt last week, and will keep going until December.Dave

[ROBIN MOSS]

#9291

Thanks guys, really appreciated the effort and great photos..Cheers Leigh

[Anonymous]

#9292

I'm waiting for the high speed test just before it opens. 😀

[Anonymous]

#9293

HA  HA  HA!  Denied!

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