Our neighbourhood is usually quiet, especially as we live on a dead-end street, nothing much happens. But since the end of August we knew that something was up. Workers raised the manhole covers, then the scraped the pavement at the edge of the road. The road really needed work, I think the last time it was paved was a long time ago according to neighbours who have lived here since the houses were built. Now paving the road is a once in lifetime experience here, so last night as I was watching TV the house started to shake and I heard a rumble, a quick glance out the kitchen window explained all. So I grabbed the camera and went outside as did a few other neighbours. I got some cool pictures and the light after 6 pm was perfect. They paved one half of the road and left.
Then this morning they were back. First came the guy that sprayed the liquid tar on the road from the back of a truck. Then came the paving machine with 6 guys on it. They setup the machine right next to last evening's job and waited for the truck with the asphalt to back up the length of the street and then they got going. It is amazing how fast this work progresses. 
The machine and the asphalt truck move in tandem at walking speed.The huge steamroller compacts the newly laid pavement by rolling over it back and forth. The guy that drives the steamroller has a seat that can swivel in any direction, facing forward or backward or even sideways. I found the whole thing fascinating.
I also saw a guy measure the temperature of the asphalt after it had been compacted. I guess it has to cool down at a certain rate. I also heard that with the high cost of crude oil the cost of paving has also gone up like crazy.
Check out the full album here.
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