It's a nice reminder of how advanced civil engineering was back then. Those of us under 60 don't always appreciate the skills of our fathers and grandfathers. This kind of historic recording gives me even more respect for them.
Wow amazing love all the vintage trucks, diggers, bulldozers etc... Those bullnose dump trucks are just beautiful what a feat of civil engineering very enjoyable watch 👍
I myself recently were part of the works last summer 2021. Renewing the tarmac and bridge decks as over 50, almost 60 years there had been failures in the structure and concrete due to water damage. We addressed all these repairs, new layer of water proofing and drainage systems under the 200mm layer of tar. All new bridge joints and drainage to hopefully withstand the next 50 years or so.
@@harleyhartley3168 any other brain dead sheep millennial cliches you can come up with and still think you’re an individual? I bet you do not even know what period boomer encompasses - I’m guessing you think it goes up to the 1980’s.
It’s hard to comprehend the scale of this project. Having lived in Uddingston for almost 40 years, it was good to see the clips of the construction and how these guy’s overcame their massive problems, considering the lack of fancy equipment.Thank you for posting this gem.
Well if you have the horsepower, anything can be accomplished. Doesn't really matter on the scale of the equipment, if the equipment is smaller then you need a lot of them.
My father drove Blaw Knox PF 90s for Roads Reconstruction, back in 1969, have never been able to find much out about that company so nice to see them in this film.I went to operate PF 90s along with other models from Blaw Knox,Bittelli and Hoes Dynapac myself as I followed him into the industry. For me Blaw Knox couldn't be beaten but no doubt the paver operators of today would look on in horror at the machines and conditions of the recent past,I would go back to them in a heartbeat!
Many of the basic building principles haven't changed since, and the processes are impressive still today. Seeing how these structures come together makes them appreciable in the first place.
They were a big company. Used to see their sign everywhere. I see from Google they are still going after being taken over. Good to think your Dad was a part of it when you use the motorways he built
When the construction was pretty well done I worked for a time with the LCC and Scottish development dept. landscaping the embankments with trees on the M74 and M8 and the Hamilton Interchange, great memories. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for the post, very interesting, shame they didn’t make it 3 lanes, but they probably could never of imagined the shear volume of traffic on today’s roads.
My late father, who died when I was aged 4 in 1974, was one of the many concrete foremen who worked on the M74. I doubt there is much left of the original parts he worked on, but it's good to see what he would have actually been working on.
I didn't see any hard hats or high viz, this must have been before elf&safety was invented and it got finished on time. thanks for posting very enjoyable.
At that era it was Mega Builders Donkey Jackets n proper steel toe-capped boots on show, these jackets withstood the harshest of weathers. Give me an old Donkey jacket anyday.
Thank you for this wonderful trip down memory lane. I grew up as small boy in Douglas in the 60's and would travel from there to Burnbank (Hamilton) to visit grandparent on the 'old' road, including the dual carriageway section to Lesmahagow, and remember seeing all the 'big' trucks and diggers at work. Brilliant. Seem to remember that the section between Lesmahagow and the far end of Blackwood was a missing link for a while.
The bit between Lesmahagow and Douglas was done first, back in the 80s, which is why it is only two-lane, as opposed to three further South. I remember them doing a bit on Blue Peter about it when they were building the bridge over the Nethan. The old road is still there through the town and it's in a bit of a state. Worth a drive though.
Brings back great memories , worked for Dick Hampton on 8 & box , those days you worked & if you stopped your pay was docked . Health & Safety didnt really exist in those day . Good Old days
I guess labour costs were much cheaper in those days, NHS and benefit systems not a strain on the public purse but most of all it needed to be done at that time due to the cut in railservices and the car buying population going sky high. Still a remarkable engineeering project.
There is a lot of economic bloat and bureaucratic delays these days; environmental investigations and many people employed mainly to stand around holding stop/slow signs; basically job creation.
I worked in engineering, draughting using pens, draughting machine on A0 board, scale rules and compasses. What's the future in 20 years as all universities have dumped their drawing boards, now 100% reliant on computers Imagine if all data clouds and software fail. and many cannot draw manually? architecture, civil & marine engineering, mechanical & electrical, landscapes architecture, interior design, product design and finally fashion are all done by computer (all. Pattern cutting on CAD). Fine art has not escaped.
Nadeem Anwar Hi I am an engineering student, started in 2018. The first piece of work done in the first semester of the first year is a series of technical drawing with a series of lectures on how to draw to BS8888. It is true that from then on virtually everything is done on CAD but the skill of technical drawing is still viewed as important enough to teach students. I think it a very important skill and needs to be maintained because sometimes there is no alternative to it.
I did 150 pages of co-ordinate geometry calculations for M90 Craigend Interchange (1968). Used 8 figure logarithms and a fairly crude Friden calculator. I worked before that a bit on M74 and M73, for Mr Paton, mentioned at the end. M74 and M73 were designed in imperial units, and M90 in metric - the change happened on 1 January 1968.
@@greenpedal370 Sliderules are all right for structural design, where you use approximations for strength of materials, and build in factors of safety after that. Highway design, in my day, involved sometimes working with huge numbers and many decimal places to ensure the necessary accuracy. E.g., the intersection of two curves each of a few kilometres radius.
I was laughing at the comptometer and slide rule, in the drawing office. Not to mention the French curves in the Planning Dept. Not a computer in sight!
Visited the Blaw Knox factory in Medway Kent during the eighties on a sales and practical training course on machine laid surfaces, sadly new technology caught up with these type of businesses, but the principle of road building hasn't changed.
1964-1966. Two years. It's taken about 10 years to open the hard-shoulder of the M5 as a running lane and put up a couple of signs. What has gone wrong with the British civil engineering industry?
Work ethics and paid to much today as well, why do they need to be bothered slug their guts out for a comfortable wage. Down to privatisation that's why, they make more money the longer the job takes and the hours they do. I was speaking to a cone watcher, he was getting £120000 a year to sitting in his van or night ok he have to lay some comes out and pick them up again. That's where the taxpayers money is going
Privatisation , sub contracting , middle management , extra strict planning consultation processes , and the high risk of Legal sueing cases with building in the wrong areas and accidents etc sadly .Fun fact to re open a much needed English 25 mile local railway line near me between Oxford and Milton keynes (much of the original trackbed is still in place) has taken equal or more time than it took in the 1830s/1840s to build the GWML from London to bristol !
This is what Britain means to me...... a sense of self-sufficiency, building stuff, great minds all working together..... people knowing all over the world what we are good at
Interesting to compare this project with the 2003-2004 building of the M77 north of Kilmarnock. Similar issues with digging out peat and replacing it with more solid infill.
I Guess this M74 was built over where I used to live. That was Bothwell Hough. We moved to Doncaster in the early 60's. I still have great memories of living there.
Hi Joss, no the M74 just missed Bothwellhaugh. They built Strathclyde Park over it. The village was just to the side of Strathclyde Loch next to M&Ds theme park. M&Ds have a hotel on the site of where you used to live, the Alona hotel. You should book a night there! Tom
@@tomgallagher4949 Hi Tom. I used to travel up to Bellshill from Liverpool to work in the 80s. My company used to book me into the Bothwell Bridge Hotel. It was a really nice place and I used to love staying there. I wonder if it is still there? Happy days.
@@tomgallagher4949 Thanks Tom. It was a very nice Hotel,in a nice location. I really used to enjoy staying there. Hope to maybe have a revisit one day. It`s a long time since I have been that far North. I am from Liverpool myself. Cheers.
Fantastic. I live at the side of the M62 J22, the vid on building that bit of Motorway and the Scammonden bridge is incredible. I was 6 at the time, the project Manager was 26years old!,.....would that work today?...dont think so...in fact no, it wouldn't LOL.
I wish I had taken photos of them building the M62. I used to spend hours watching the work a few junctions away from where you are towards Leeds. Back then we just seemed to get things done. A young project manager indeed Building the by pass near me in later years the foreman was a lot older. I did get photos and video of that work
LOL Yea One for the job and 29 for the paperwork before anything begins. Each having a different idea about how to build it so endless meetings huge expense and delayed progress
@@michelebeck4311 half truth in that ! They were just starting to be shipped over to UK then in mass in 1960 and most of them did a job aswell as this above .
Lovely film, Haughs Keeper. I could watch films like this all day. As for the people (Americans) that say the 'Brits drive on the wrong side of the road', think before you type.
Interesting to see how much they used tractor hauled winch operated drag box scrapers, you don't even see later motor scrapers, such as CAT 637s, on muck shifting jobs these days. Its still possible to have a CPCS card category for them but don't know of anyone who actually has.
D8 & Box was the word in the pubs along motorway routs and the poor diesel bowser driver could be smelt a mile off. I worked in many types of construction from 1960 until 2016 and this film did bring back memories of my time with Mac Alpines. The fitters would help you repair the 1st cable snap, you would fix the 2nd and if there was a 3rd well you grabbed your bag and headed home. After the muck shift I drove a JCB putting the road gully's in, that was better paid than the muck shift so we went like hell.
Mick, if you want to see scrapers at work try the socalearthmovers channel. This one ruclips.net/video/dYbrYGyf0CI/видео.html is particularly good with loads of 57s all push pull working and the occasional 51. Several D11s as well but not pushing.
I can still remember coming to my granny's sister's house in Wanlockhead between 1961 and 1971. We saw the construction of the first by pass (now A702) from the original A74 (now B7076) then the dual carriageway at Crawford where we got off the X30 "Gay Hostess" Ribble bus. A company called M M Ltd provided the equipment. It was a very dangerous road due to traffic crossing the opposite carriageway. South of Abington the M74 is the A74(M)!
Even as a kid I thought that turning off the A74 across traffic was insane. Sitting in the middle waiting for a gap then flooring it. My Mum had a friend in Crawfordjohn and we would go up their quite often. I always hated the turn off the road.
cant believe with the workforce of Scottish and Irish labour and engineer skills we have to bring a workforce from Portugal with low wage to construct bridges on the awpr Aberdeen new road the construction industry in the country has went backwards
Proper graft. No messing about. Very little H+S. Job got done in good time. Compare this to modern times where virtually every large scale engineering project runs over by months. Even the operators and labourers were on better money then, comparatively speaking. Good workers were also looked after by both companies and the government. Nowadays full time workers are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and getting on the property ladder is nigh on impossible for the majority. What an absolute shambles this nation has becomr.
Great video but @ 0:18. Geez even for a dual carriageway that’s poor planning with those bends. They should have shaved the hill of and straightened it.
Well in those days they had draughtsmen at large lanterns using rulers an squares etc in offices , A2 an A3 diagrams in site cabins an people like me out on job using dumpy levels to record measurements . This at the start of electrification of the U.K. west main line , by the way going on at same time as motorway building , all this went on till 1979 but was seriously affected by the 70s oil crisis . Like near all it stopped with a bump much like 2010 , the 5 th richest country on earth but we can’t afford anything they said both times . If you all want to argue with me go to your library an ask to see a Rd map of 1980 U.K. with 2019 map , and guess what with a few exceptions like the m40 ALL. The major motorway network was built by then . Check out rail ,I think you will find the west an east coast an Bristol are the only electric lines in U.K. , Ok a lot of third rail around London built before then The Tory gov and Tory blair Tory light gov done f#### all but talk , we have as a nation sat on our Arses letting it all go to pot . Our Rd’s and rails are crap totally overloaded an what do we do lol BLAME THE EU As individuals we are ok people but as a nation we are a bunch of tossers sad to say lol
The box scrapers shown are all operated by the contractor “Dick Hampton”. I remember them building the earthworks for the Port Talbot bypass (now part of the M4) in the summer of 1964. Most of the drivers were New Zealander’s. As a 10 year old I would cadge rides on these machines and on one occasion the kindly driver allowed me to drive the rig! BTW, the name “Dick Hampton” sounds risqué. Was this an in joke by someone when they formed the company? On the other hand, maybe there really was a Mr Dick Hampton!
An alarm going off while your sleeping is been disturbed, not having your house bulldozed. "Oh I'm sorry to disturb you but you don't mind if we knock your house down".
Fantastic video to how hard everyone worked on this 15 miles? of motorway!!!! The coolest machine was the mini roller around the surfaceing machine and the tech of the heated section was fair ahead of its time🤔 and the plant men were fair skilled too!!! Is the same motorway still in use????
Those heated sections were installed in a few places across the country. Unfortunately their reliability was pretty abysmal and they're no longer in use. Instead they just chuck grit on. This particular stretch of the M74 is still pretty much as it was then, although it's been resurfaced a few times. It could do with widening though.
i see a humber super snipe and humber hawk. my mate had a humber super snipe and i had a humber hawk. my mate is a pommy and im a australia driving a pommy car but i did love my car in the 1980s
One can only imagine what those builders and engineers would make of today's WOKE generation. Great work and much of today's comforts are owed to those very people who worked in harsh conditions!
"those very people who worked in harsh conditions!" Until the 70s came, out of work and on the dole and singing songs about how "I Don't Like Mondays".
I hope those builders and engineers would be glad to see their grandchildren working to higher standards of health and safety. I'm an engineer from the "WOKE" generation and I'm very proud of the work we do in the modern age. I'm also glad companies are compelled to give me steel-toe-capped boots, safety specs, a high-vis vest and a hard hat. Respect to our predecessors though, they worked a tough and dangerous job for corporations that often didn't give a damn for their safety.
@@RogueAkai yeah but...yeah but.....yeah but.....i bet you let WOMEN ONTO YOUR SITES DONT YOU and something something health and * throaty cough * safety. not like in my * wincing in pain as i move slightly in my armchair * day
@Rogue Akai Of course you're proud of your shittier work in comparison to this that now takes over a decade to complete, and isn't even _built to last_ for even an entire decade without showing cracks and decay, at that.
Millions of pounds spent on this as Beeching swung his axe. Motorway built due to increased traffic and population. 8000 miles of railway closed... minister of transport thanked them for completing on time on budget and kickbacks...?
I know guys in trades earning the same just now as they did in 2001, 2002. Utterly criminal. Can't have the working man with a pound in their pocket, oh no.
That generation were looked after social housing for hard working people they even owned there own home real men back then no health safety shit like now
@@Le_Petit_Lapin My mistake (which I've corrected) should be 150 a week, which equates to around £2500 per week now, given inflation. Worth noting if you were lucky enough to have 1 million in 1971 in a/c you would now need 14 million for same purchasing power. Think why in many respects pension pots for the young are not transparent, in my opinion you could be paying more for less in the future. £150 today would only be worth £152.70 next year at current rate of inflation.
Great film!! Pity the UK can't be like this again. It takes them longer to get a job done with the technology we have now!! And the quality of the materials used is of a poor quality too!
It was the Irish who built the majority of UK roads and rail. Today the UK is done for, too many foreign nationals migrating there to receive benefits and work privately for "cash in hand" has ruined it for you guys.
@@danielt8960 but back then they got the job done and the materials were of a high standard unlike the modern rubbish today, done on the cheap and slipshod. All you have to do is take a look around modern buildings and see the scaffolding rigged up around them, some only 3 months after they were completed. What you're saying is correct, and if we don't return to proper apprenticeships and time served electricians, plumbers, brickies etc instead of filling stupid pc target quotas, you're bang on the money.
Both of you gentlemen are correct here and I agree 100% with each. As a mere "yank" outside looking in immigration is a big problem over there and Derek you are correct on the materials used today is pretty poor. For instance the UK was world renowned for their Sheffield steel now China has control of the vast majority of the world steel markets.
@@clarkcuffymorris.5977 Thanks for the reply!! There's been a hastened decline in British manufacturing etc, a tiny fraction is market related, but the vast majority of it is all down to the UK government taking orders from its precursor to the eu masters. It is in order to decimate the UK manufacturing and other basics in order to help the rest of the eu sell its products. I can give you an example. I dated a girl whose father worked at the Ravenscraig steel mill here in Scotland. It was the most efficient and profitable steel mill in Europe, but Thyssen Krupp was losing the steel product contract to British Steel Ravenscraig for the German car industry specifically BMW. This had to stop, and under the new proposed eu rules drafted up, the sell off of British steel was forced on the tory government of the time. British steel was merged with the Dutch steel company Hoogovens to form the Corus group, and phase one was complete. It was then run into the ground deliberately and the Indian company Tata came to the rescue. They took over some of the steel operations and sold off the rest. This gave Thyssen Krupp what they wanted, but with cheap Chinese steel dumping, it's come back to bite them on the arse. Hopefully now that we're going to be leaving the eu, we will be able to rebuild the industrial bases we were forced to lose.
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It's a nice reminder of how advanced civil engineering was back then. Those of us under 60 don't always appreciate the skills of our fathers and grandfathers. This kind of historic recording gives me even more respect for them.
Well said sir, most kids now couldn't change a plug, these men were the backbone of our nation, they just got on with it.
What made me chuckle was the feller checking the pile stress tests, Can you imagine doing that today Elf n Safety would fall off thier perch .
when graft was graft. thanks for the upload , i drive here most days , what a time warp
Wow amazing love all the vintage trucks, diggers, bulldozers etc... Those bullnose dump trucks are just beautiful what a feat of civil engineering very enjoyable watch 👍
I myself recently were part of the works last summer 2021. Renewing the tarmac and bridge decks as over 50, almost 60 years there had been failures in the structure and concrete due to water damage. We addressed all these repairs, new layer of water proofing and drainage systems under the 200mm layer of tar. All new bridge joints and drainage to hopefully withstand the next 50 years or so.
Love the old machines. A lot of skilled operators. No GPS
Imagine disliking something that is nothing but helpful lmao boomers
@@harleyhartley3168 any other brain dead sheep millennial cliches you can come up with and still think you’re an individual?
I bet you do not even know what period boomer encompasses - I’m guessing you think it goes up to the 1980’s.
It’s hard to comprehend the scale of this project. Having lived in Uddingston for almost 40 years, it was good to see the clips of the construction and how these guy’s overcame their massive problems, considering the lack of fancy equipment.Thank you for posting this gem.
Well if you have the horsepower, anything can be accomplished. Doesn't really matter on the scale of the equipment, if the equipment is smaller then you need a lot of them.
I worked in the plant industry from 68! Many happy memories for me here of plant machinery of the period. Thanks for posting.
Aye aye, ye wid hae hid a lot o awkward jobs in poor conditions.
So happy all of this stuff was video taped and documented . Thanks to all involved.
My father drove Blaw Knox PF 90s for Roads Reconstruction, back in 1969, have never been able to find much out about that company so nice to see them in this film.I went to operate PF 90s along with other models from Blaw Knox,Bittelli and Hoes Dynapac myself as I followed him into the industry. For me Blaw Knox couldn't be beaten but no doubt the paver operators of today would look on in horror at the machines and conditions of the recent past,I would go back to them in a heartbeat!
Many of the basic building principles haven't changed since, and the processes are impressive still today. Seeing how these structures come together makes them appreciable in the first place.
Fascinating film Thanks. Great to see the old British way of getting on with the job
With Irish navies
Well you are right there They built a huge amount of our roads
@@cedarcam yes cedarcam, my Dad came over he was a quantity surveyor on the M1 and A1 working for John Laing construction.
They were a big company. Used to see their sign everywhere. I see from Google they are still going after being taken over. Good to think your Dad was a part of it when you use the motorways he built
Compared to the activity that you see in roadworks today...lots of invisible men, not getting on with any job. But still, it's all progress I suppose.
When the construction was pretty well done I worked for a time with the LCC and Scottish development dept. landscaping the embankments with trees on the M74 and M8 and the Hamilton Interchange, great memories. Thanks for posting.
Thanks for the post, very interesting, shame they didn’t make it 3 lanes, but they probably could never of imagined the shear volume of traffic on today’s roads.
excellent. really enjoyed watching this old film. great old machines and very nostalgic.
My late father, who died when I was aged 4 in 1974, was one of the many concrete foremen who worked on the M74. I doubt there is much left of the original parts he worked on, but it's good to see what he would have actually been working on.
I didn't see any hard hats or high viz, this must have been before elf&safety was invented and it got finished on time. thanks for posting very enjoyable.
Serious injuries and death were common place back then, see at 09:42. Worker beside the lose pile could have easily got killed.
At that era it was Mega Builders Donkey Jackets n proper steel toe-capped boots on show, these jackets withstood the harshest of weathers. Give me an old Donkey jacket anyday.
@@troublebrewing99 Still a better 'era' back then, too much red tape nowadays.
I work in construction H&S, and I’d much rather make sure all workers get home every night to their families.
Thank you for this wonderful trip down memory lane. I grew up as small boy in Douglas in the 60's and would travel from there to Burnbank (Hamilton) to visit grandparent on the 'old' road, including the dual carriageway section to Lesmahagow, and remember seeing all the 'big' trucks and diggers at work. Brilliant. Seem to remember that the section between Lesmahagow and the far end of Blackwood was a missing link for a while.
It was, only finished in about 93!
The bit between Lesmahagow and Douglas was done first, back in the 80s, which is why it is only two-lane, as opposed to three further South. I remember them doing a bit on Blue Peter about it when they were building the bridge over the Nethan.
The old road is still there through the town and it's in a bit of a state. Worth a drive though.
For nearly 20 years I've been driving on and off the M74 at J6 Hamilton/Motherwell. Never knew that it was meant to be a heated road.
Only a slip road at Canderside interchange and on the Avon Bridge are heated.
As is the Kingston Bridge....
Great to see all the detail so well explained.
I used to watch these old films as a boy with my pa,many thanks for posting this nostalgic video
Back to the time when the Brits loved building stuff!!!
Don't you mean the Irish?
@@jayfbee No, they used to blow things up, sometimes people.
Cool
@@jayfbee and SCOTTISH! Wur not fucking "british".
Brings back great memories , worked for Dick Hampton on 8 & box , those days you worked & if you stopped your pay was docked .
Health & Safety didnt really exist in those day . Good Old days
Impressive civil engineering skills and outcome!
I guess labour costs were much cheaper in those days, NHS and benefit systems not a strain on the public purse but most of all it needed to be done at that time due to the cut in railservices and the car buying population going sky high. Still a remarkable engineeering project.
There is a lot of economic bloat and bureaucratic delays these days; environmental investigations and many people employed mainly to stand around holding stop/slow signs; basically job creation.
Remember it well being built. Now been driving on it constantly most days. Appreciate its original construction.
Great video, these guys worked hard...... very good to watch 👍🏼
.. I'M THINKING IT'S 1976 & IT'S THE SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.. I'M 9 YRS OLD AND MY MATES GOT " TONKA " TRUCKS..DIGGERS.. DOZERS.... ETC BRILLIANT VIDEO 🙂🙂🙂
I worked in engineering, draughting using pens, draughting machine on A0 board, scale rules and compasses. What's the future in 20 years as all universities have dumped their drawing boards, now 100% reliant on computers
Imagine if all data clouds and software fail. and many cannot draw manually?
architecture, civil & marine engineering, mechanical & electrical, landscapes architecture, interior design, product design and finally fashion are all done by computer (all. Pattern cutting on CAD). Fine art has not escaped.
Nadeem Anwar Hi
I am an engineering student, started in 2018. The first piece of work done in the first semester of the first year is a series of technical drawing with a series of lectures on how to draw to BS8888. It is true that from then on virtually everything is done on CAD but the skill of technical drawing is still viewed as important enough to teach students. I think it a very important skill and needs to be maintained because sometimes there is no alternative to it.
In the 70s we could get more engineering designs done with skilled draughtsmen than get done now with computers.
Thank you for this, great insight.
Great video. How the hell do they design and plan all this without computers and GPS! Good old pencil and paper
And sliderules
I did 150 pages of co-ordinate geometry calculations for M90 Craigend Interchange (1968). Used 8 figure logarithms and a fairly crude Friden calculator. I worked before that a bit on M74 and M73, for Mr Paton, mentioned at the end. M74 and M73 were designed in imperial units, and M90 in metric - the change happened on 1 January 1968.
@@greenpedal370 Sliderules are all right for structural design, where you use approximations for strength of materials, and build in factors of safety after that. Highway design, in my day, involved sometimes working with huge numbers and many decimal places to ensure the necessary accuracy. E.g., the intersection of two curves each of a few kilometres radius.
I love the AEC heavy tipper @ 7:47!!!!!!
I was 6 in 1964 so recognize many of these old cars & trucks etc, really interesting video..;-))
You were a bit young to be working in this industry lol.
@@swaneknoctic9555 Excellent mathematical skills!!
@@swaneknoctic9555 hi, do you know the brand name of this heavy sumo truck, i need to know thank you
EXCELLENT Documentary I remember it all well. Dont see Mcalpines as most M/ways were built by em. 60s
Excellent production is this 'film', Well presented.
Thanks for the video!
Came here for the 60's trucks dozers and scrapers
Jolly good show
I was laughing at the comptometer and slide rule,
in the drawing office. Not to mention the French curves in the Planning Dept.
Not a computer in sight!
Me too love it
love those old lorries
So did I. Works of art compared to the washing machines on wheels today.
Visited the Blaw Knox factory in Medway Kent during the eighties on a sales and practical training course on machine laid surfaces, sadly new technology caught up with these type of businesses, but the principle of road building hasn't changed.
Fantastic film!
1964-1966. Two years. It's taken about 10 years to open the hard-shoulder of the M5 as a running lane and put up a couple of signs. What has gone wrong with the British civil engineering industry?
Taking 2 or 3 years just to put a concrete barrier down the middle of the m27. Wtf!
Ohs
Work ethics and paid to much today as well, why do they need to be bothered slug their guts out for a comfortable wage. Down to privatisation that's why, they make more money the longer the job takes and the hours they do. I was speaking to a cone watcher, he was getting £120000 a year to sitting in his van or night ok he have to lay some comes out and pick them up again. That's where the taxpayers money is going
Privatisation , sub contracting , middle management , extra strict planning consultation processes , and the high risk of Legal sueing cases with building in the wrong areas and accidents etc sadly .Fun fact to re open a much needed English 25 mile local railway line near me between Oxford and Milton keynes (much of the original trackbed is still in place) has taken equal or more time than it took in the 1830s/1840s to build the GWML from London to bristol !
John sweda can I come over from NZ to do traffic control?ohh,whoops,wrong colour.Doesnt matter about🇳🇿we can fffk off.
wot no hi vis! and they still got it done.
This is what Britain means to me...... a sense of self-sufficiency, building stuff, great minds all working together..... people knowing all over the world what we are good at
Fantastic. Thank you.
Notice the absence of hi-vis bods observing!
my father worked on this and was in charge of the fourteen women who worked on it too.
Interesting to compare this project with the 2003-2004 building of the M77 north of Kilmarnock. Similar issues with digging out peat and replacing it with more solid infill.
Brings back memories hearing the steam pile driver.😀
Amazing when you think of it.
Seems very advanced for the time period.
fantastic thank you
Brilliant thanks.
this is really great
hope you doing good
Thanks for the video.
I Guess this M74 was built over where I used to live. That was Bothwell Hough. We moved to Doncaster in the early 60's. I still have great memories of living there.
Hi Joss, no the M74 just missed Bothwellhaugh. They built Strathclyde Park over it. The village was just to the side of Strathclyde Loch next to M&Ds theme park. M&Ds have a hotel on the site of where you used to live, the Alona hotel. You should book a night there! Tom
@@tomgallagher4949 Thanks for the link. Looks nice there. Book marked and hopeful will get up next year. Cheers for that Tom.
@@tomgallagher4949 Hi Tom. I used to travel up to Bellshill from Liverpool to work in the 80s. My company used to book me into the Bothwell Bridge Hotel. It was a really nice place and I used to love staying there. I wonder if it is still there? Happy days.
@@stephensmith4480 Hi Stephen, yes the hotel is still there. Very nice too. Tom
@@tomgallagher4949 Thanks Tom. It was a very nice Hotel,in a nice location. I really used to enjoy staying there. Hope to maybe have a revisit one day. It`s a long time since I have been that far North. I am from Liverpool myself. Cheers.
Fantastic. I live at the side of the M62 J22, the vid on building that bit of Motorway and the Scammonden bridge is incredible. I was 6 at the time, the project Manager was 26years old!,.....would that work today?...dont think so...in fact no, it wouldn't LOL.
I wish I had taken photos of them building the M62. I used to spend hours watching the work a few junctions away from where you are towards Leeds. Back then we just seemed to get things done. A young project manager indeed Building the by pass near me in later years the foreman was a lot older. I did get photos and video of that work
They'd have 30 project managers instead........ yea that will work!
LOL Yea One for the job and 29 for the paperwork before anything begins. Each having a different idea about how to build it so endless meetings huge expense and delayed progress
@@cedarcam to many cowboys not enough Indians
@@michelebeck4311 half truth in that ! They were just starting to be shipped over to UK then in mass in 1960 and most of them did a job aswell as this above .
Lovely film, Haughs Keeper. I could watch films like this all day. As for the people (Americans) that say the 'Brits drive on the wrong side of the road', think before you type.
Does anyone know approx. for how many years the underground heating solution shown at 23:48 was operational for?
Following
Up until 1990. That is, until Britain started the "austerity" at home so that it can afford participation in colonial wars.
Superb. Cheers
Love the guy @ 9:33 optimistically going to grab a hold on the steel casing being lifted to steady it.
Deaths and serious injury were an acceptable risk back then.
These people would be stunned at what things are like today
I like the little drag-line at 18.20.
a cracking good information film
of course
hope you doing good
Interesting to see how much they used tractor hauled winch operated drag box scrapers, you don't even see later motor scrapers, such as CAT 637s, on muck shifting jobs these days. Its still possible to have a CPCS card category for them but don't know of anyone who actually has.
D8 & Box was the word in the pubs along motorway routs and the poor diesel bowser driver could be smelt a mile off. I worked in many types of construction from 1960 until 2016 and this film did bring back memories of my time with Mac Alpines. The fitters would help you repair the 1st cable snap, you would fix the 2nd and if there was a 3rd well you grabbed your bag and headed home. After the muck shift I drove a JCB putting the road gully's in, that was better paid than the muck shift so we went like hell.
Mick, if you want to see scrapers at work try the socalearthmovers channel. This one ruclips.net/video/dYbrYGyf0CI/видео.html is particularly good with loads of 57s all push pull working and the occasional 51. Several D11s as well but not pushing.
I can still remember coming to my granny's sister's house in Wanlockhead between 1961 and 1971. We saw the construction of the first by pass (now A702) from the original A74 (now B7076) then the dual carriageway at Crawford where we got off the X30 "Gay Hostess" Ribble bus. A company called M M Ltd provided the equipment. It was a very dangerous road due to traffic crossing the opposite carriageway. South of Abington the M74 is the A74(M)!
M & M was probably merriman & meehan of Leicester. Out in Thurlaston.
@@jayfbee Hi jayfbee, thanks for your reply. There was no "&" in between the names. Did contractors in the sixties travel so far to get work?
MM is Murdoch Mackenzie
@@ronniel5941 Thanks for this information. I will investigate further.
Even as a kid I thought that turning off the A74 across traffic was insane. Sitting in the middle waiting for a gap then flooring it. My Mum had a friend in Crawfordjohn and we would go up their quite often. I always hated the turn off the road.
Have the displeasure of a Blau Knox paver of this vintage in at my workshop at the moment😂
I worked the m74 back the olden days
cant believe with the workforce of Scottish and Irish labour and engineer skills we have to bring a workforce from Portugal with low wage to construct bridges on the awpr Aberdeen new road the construction industry in the country has went backwards
No calculators then....using a slide rule. Old enough to remember them at school. What a changed world we live in.
Proper graft. No messing about. Very little H+S. Job got done in good time. Compare this to modern times where virtually every large scale engineering project runs over by months. Even the operators and labourers were on better money then, comparatively speaking. Good workers were also looked after by both companies and the government. Nowadays full time workers are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and getting on the property ladder is nigh on impossible for the majority. What an absolute shambles this nation has becomr.
God help us post Brexit. Got the distinct feeling things are going to get worse before they get better (if they do indeed improve at all).
Not an metric measurement mentioned here, fantastic!
Still have my Britool imperial spanner’s
Ok Boomer
There is nothing fantastic measuring things in hands, legs and bombidongs.
Still feet and inches
Imperial measurements are ridiculous.
Great video but @ 0:18. Geez even for a dual carriageway that’s poor planning with those bends. They should have shaved the hill of and straightened it.
Gez, health and safety went right of the window back then. lol
25:18 And when the work is done, the hat wearers arrive.
Some things never change
Well in those days they had draughtsmen at large lanterns using rulers an squares etc in offices , A2 an A3 diagrams in site cabins an people like me out on job using dumpy levels to record measurements .
This at the start of electrification of the U.K. west main line , by the way going on at same time as motorway building , all this went on till 1979 but was seriously affected by the 70s oil crisis .
Like near all it stopped with a bump much like 2010 , the 5 th richest country on earth but we can’t afford anything they said both times .
If you all want to argue with me go to your library an ask to see a Rd map of 1980 U.K. with 2019 map , and guess what with a few exceptions like the m40 ALL. The major motorway network was built by then .
Check out rail ,I think you will find the west an east coast an Bristol are the only electric lines in U.K. ,
Ok a lot of third rail around London built before then
The Tory gov and Tory blair Tory light gov done f#### all but talk , we have as a nation sat on our Arses letting it all go to pot .
Our Rd’s and rails are crap totally overloaded an what do we do lol BLAME THE EU
As individuals we are ok people but as a nation we are a bunch of tossers sad to say lol
Are you sure you were even qualified enough to use a dumpy level ? The standard of writing in that post is simply horrendous
The box scrapers shown are all operated by the contractor “Dick Hampton”. I remember them building the earthworks for the Port Talbot bypass (now part of the M4) in the summer of 1964. Most of the drivers were New Zealander’s. As a 10 year old I would cadge rides on these machines and on one occasion the kindly driver allowed me to drive the rig! BTW, the name “Dick Hampton” sounds risqué. Was this an in joke by someone when they formed the company? On the other hand, maybe there really was a Mr Dick Hampton!
I would have liked to have "Dick Hampton" on the side of my truck. ha ha ha !
The chap who narrated said film also was a contouity announcer with bbc scotland..
Jolly good.
'contouity' brilliant
You mean continuity ?
@ 4:53 reminds me of "The Pit "
No nonsense road building,unlike the disorganised situation today..
Didn't you watch it? Loads of equipment got stranded in floods? How's that no-nonsense?
@@acciid Once the floods had drained,they probably started the work more quickly instead of having a few meetings about it....
@@melvyncox3361 Fair point.....
@@acciid
Thanks mate.
An alarm going off while your sleeping is been disturbed, not having your house bulldozed. "Oh I'm sorry to disturb you but you don't mind if we knock your house down".
Fantastic video to how hard everyone worked on this 15 miles? of motorway!!!! The coolest machine was the mini roller around the surfaceing machine and the tech of the heated section was fair ahead of its time🤔 and the plant men were fair skilled too!!! Is the same motorway still in use????
Those heated sections were installed in a few places across the country. Unfortunately their reliability was pretty abysmal and they're no longer in use. Instead they just chuck grit on.
This particular stretch of the M74 is still pretty much as it was then, although it's been resurfaced a few times. It could do with widening though.
acid oooh right thanks!!!!
i see a humber super snipe and humber hawk. my mate had a humber super snipe and i had a humber hawk. my mate is a pommy and im a australia driving a pommy car but i did love my car in the 1980s
One can only imagine what those builders and engineers would make of today's WOKE generation.
Great work and much of today's comforts are owed to those very people who worked in harsh conditions!
"those very people who worked in harsh conditions!" Until the 70s came, out of work and on the dole and singing songs about how "I Don't Like Mondays".
I hope those builders and engineers would be glad to see their grandchildren working to higher standards of health and safety.
I'm an engineer from the "WOKE" generation and I'm very proud of the work we do in the modern age.
I'm also glad companies are compelled to give me steel-toe-capped boots, safety specs, a high-vis vest and a hard hat.
Respect to our predecessors though, they worked a tough and dangerous job for corporations that often didn't give a damn for their safety.
@@RogueAkai yeah but...yeah but.....yeah but.....i bet you let WOMEN ONTO YOUR SITES DONT YOU and something something health and * throaty cough * safety. not like in my * wincing in pain as i move slightly in my armchair * day
@Rogue Akai Of course you're proud of your shittier work in comparison to this that now takes over a decade to complete, and isn't even _built to last_ for even an entire decade without showing cracks and decay, at that.
Great!
Can you believe it we were actually Optimistic about the future in those days Oh how everything has changed
Cant do that these days ,5to many big foreign companies involved ,even Highways England is a private company now
Privatisation and outsourcing brought in during the 1980's.
Devcon and JB Weld used on the pilings eh? No Hivis, ROPS, or hydraulic stripping shovels.... crane and bucket concrete instead of pumping too.
Does anyone know how long this took? And why these days it can take several years just to alter a roundabout or change a junction??
...these days = snowflakes
Wow...
Pioneers in the past, that designs the future
Real men working.
Very well informed narrative, I appreciate it. A shame that nowadays you'd have some numpty calling every layer of the road 'Tarmac'.
This is what it took to build interstate quality road. Crazy how it was done back then.
Some AEC action 7:31.
Look at those rear hubs! 18:51 & 22:59!!
New Ford D series 26:44.
Millions of pounds spent on this as Beeching swung his axe. Motorway built due to increased traffic and population. 8000 miles of railway closed... minister of transport thanked them for completing on time on budget and kickbacks...?
And we are still paying for the Beeching blunder today. It was madness then and it's madness now.
The men on here probably made more money an hour then than what employers pay today.
You're right. I knew folk who were on 150 a week on Hydro electric schemes back in the late 60's,
something my Careers master failed to tell me about.
I know guys in trades earning the same just now as they did in 2001, 2002. Utterly criminal. Can't have the working man with a pound in their pocket, oh no.
That generation were looked after social housing for hard working people they even owned there own home real men back then no health safety shit like now
@@voicezful 150 a day in 60's money? I don't even want to imagine what thats equivalent to today.
@@Le_Petit_Lapin My mistake (which I've corrected) should be 150 a week, which equates to
around £2500 per week now, given inflation. Worth noting if you were lucky enough to have
1 million in 1971 in a/c you would now need 14 million for same purchasing power.
Think why in many respects pension pots for the young are not transparent, in my opinion
you could be paying more for less in the future. £150 today would only be worth £152.70 next
year at current rate of inflation.
Lots of machines back then too, lots of people employed
Today few machines few jobs same amount of work
The men actually doing the digging were probably Irish. What, today, the Gammons call, EU economic migrants. Sad World innit?
Aveling Barford dumper had a few in the Army.
👍👍 vedio my frem
Oh know them old woodland areas
Great film!! Pity the UK can't be like this again. It takes them longer to get a job done with the technology we have now!! And the quality of the materials used is of a poor quality too!
It was the Irish who built the majority of UK roads and rail. Today the UK is done for, too many foreign nationals migrating there to receive benefits and work privately for "cash in hand" has ruined it for you guys.
@@danielt8960 but back then they got the job done and the materials were of a high standard unlike the modern rubbish today, done on the cheap and slipshod. All you have to do is take a look around modern buildings and see the scaffolding rigged up around them, some only 3 months after they were completed. What you're saying is correct, and if we don't return to proper apprenticeships and time served electricians, plumbers, brickies etc instead of filling stupid pc target quotas, you're bang on the money.
Both of you gentlemen are correct here and I agree 100% with each. As a mere "yank" outside looking in immigration is a big problem over there and Derek you are correct on the materials used today is pretty poor. For instance the UK was world renowned for their Sheffield steel now China has control of the vast majority of the world steel markets.
@@clarkcuffymorris.5977 Thanks for the reply!! There's been a hastened decline in British manufacturing etc, a tiny fraction is market related, but the vast majority of it is all down to the UK government taking orders from its precursor to the eu masters. It is in order to decimate the UK manufacturing and other basics in order to help the rest of the eu sell its products. I can give you an example. I dated a girl whose father worked at the Ravenscraig steel mill here in Scotland. It was the most efficient and profitable steel mill in Europe, but Thyssen Krupp was losing the steel product contract to British Steel Ravenscraig for the German car industry specifically BMW.
This had to stop, and under the new proposed eu rules drafted up, the sell off of British steel was forced on the tory government of the time. British steel was merged with the Dutch steel company Hoogovens to form the Corus group, and phase one was complete. It was then run into the ground deliberately and the Indian company Tata came to the rescue. They took over some of the steel operations and sold off the rest. This gave Thyssen Krupp what they wanted, but with cheap Chinese steel dumping, it's come back to bite them on the arse. Hopefully now that we're going to be leaving the eu, we will be able to rebuild the industrial bases we were forced to lose.
Any more videos like this anyone could link me to?
Thinking the same thing, Jaimie. I love these types of films.
"Quick lads, put ya safety hats on, 25:10 I know no ones wore one all this time, but lets pretend".....