Skip to main content

VIDEO: Concrete paving - you’ve come a long way, baby!

It’s 1948. The grand scheme of creating an Interstate Highway system in the US is still barely a twinkle in President Dwight Eisenhower’s military eye. Highway construction improved greatly in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the American contractors became more mechanized and therefore efficient at laying roads faster and of better quality. But how did they build a road back then in 1948? Thanks to Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, we have a movie of just how a concrete highway was created. The constr
July 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
It’s 1948. The grand scheme of creating an Interstate Highway system in the US is still barely a twinkle in President Dwight Eisenhower’s military eye. Highway construction improved greatly in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the American contractors became more mechanized and therefore efficient at laying roads faster and of better quality.

But how did they build a road back then in 1948?

Thanks to Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, we have a movie of just how a concrete highway was created. The construction site looked more like a chain gang from a nearby prison that a professionally done infrastructure project.

Viewers just might be able to feel the sun’s heat as workers toil into the long day.

If this video piqued your curiosity about road building projects back then, %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal click here Visit youtube Page false https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neaoGclvips false false%> to see a 1951 film from the Bethlehem Steel Company. Things have apparently moved on since 1948 and steel is making inroads. At least this film is in colour.

Related Content

  • Turkmenistan starts construction of Ashgabat-Turkmenbashi road
    May 8, 2015
    Turkmenistan has started construction of the 544km Ashgabat-Turkmenbashi highway under a public-private partnership contract. The deal is expected to cost between US$800-900 million for every 2km or so of road construction from Ashgabat in central Turkmenistan to Turkmenbashi, a city of around 90,000 on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. For a YouTube video graphic representation of the highway, click here. To see World Highways report onTurkmenistan’s highways projects in 2011, click here. Türkmenb
  • California redefines the term carpool
    April 14, 2015
    California is home to many weird and wonderful home-made vehicles, some more useful than other. But few can be as useful as the car pool table car which can do up to 160kph on the freeway. As shown by this – complete with all the double entendres you could wish for – the owner can drive to the beach, park up and proceed to play pool, which apparently attracts a lot of beach bunnies. http://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/watch/video/vi-AAaCRoj?ocid=OutNUK&from=OutNUK&FORM=BWVOLC A late model Chevrolet Mont
  • Snow removal: a right way and a wrong way
    June 12, 2015
    Snow. That winter menace for road users. Often it catches drivers unaware; often its efficient removal is planned for by road authorities. Some regions and countries get more snow than others, such as Scandinavia, northern Europe and North America, and are better at it.
  • Goldhofer rescues O&K RH 120-E from Calenturitas de Prodeco Mine
    November 1, 2016
    It was reportedly a logistical challenge to collect a massive front shovel excavator from the open pit coal mine Calenturitas de Prodeco in north-eastern Colombia. The twin engines of the 290-tonne O&K RH 120-E mining excavator had given up the ghost and could not be repaired on site, leaving the monster stranded atop a high mound of earth. So the mining company contracted heavy haulage specialist Boom Logistics to collect the excavator and transport it to the repair shop 22km away. http://www.goldho