Thursday 28 May 2009

Building Green Roads

If like me, you often drive down the A1 from North East England toward Leeds and beyond you will probably have noticed that the Highways Agency has recently started work on widening the road between Leeming Bar and Dishforth. Trees and hedges have been cut down, new fences have been installed, and the stranded and old class 47 diesel locomotive has finally gone to the great scrapyard in the sky.

And of course the old farm houses, barns and transport cafes grew up along the side of the A1 many years ago are being demolished. Well, except that they're not being demolished. Dismantled would be a more accurate description. Not quite brick by brick but certainly by material type. Roof slates/tile seem to be the first to come off, followed by internal times and joists, other materials and then the brick and block work. All of this, I assume is in aid of recycling, or at least more environmentally friendly disposal. But it does seem to take weeks to dismantle a farm house that would otherwise have vanished in a single day at the mercy of a decent bulldozer and a few tipper-trucks.

Does this mean that as well as our cars, now our roads are getting greener? Must be a good thing I suppose.

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