Collating construction couture

No I am not referring to clothing worn in the construction industry being modeled on the runways of Milan and Paris. A bridge built long ago just was’t fashionable anymore. It stood in the way of the road being broadened, in the way of more runways for vehicles in there fashionable Pirellis.

This collage certainly attacks the senses (well it attacked mine).Especially when  I took the photos.  I was surrounded by:

• police cars, lights ánd darkness,
• massive construction vehicles (actually they were Transformers waiting to transform at any moment and throw me over the horizon)
• and intimidating  reflective, hard-hatted,  official looking well uh officials
• and construction workers de-constructing

It felt like trespassing while taking the photos, which is great – that means an experience of adventure – living on the ragged lens.

A National Freeway  in South Africa the N1 was closed in order to demolish a bridge, so that the highway can be made wider. This was done with mechanical tools as there was another bridge next to this one still to be used and residential areas right round – explosives would be counter productive and dangerous.

To me this photo on its own is also a collage. It seems impossible that all those the machines would be able to operate so close to each other but they did very effectively. I also like the contrasts of darkness, light, colour, humans and machines

I spent 2 hours on the Friday evening and 45 minutes on the site the Saturday.  The road was going to be closed from Friday evening 19:00 till Monday morning 5:00. Saturday I spoke to some of the engineers. While they were not shouting it off the bridges these guys were exited about a job well done. The road was re-opened Saturday 18:00, well ahead of schedule decreasing the impact of the congestion of traffic being relayed due to the closure. Staying in a country with challenges I was also proud to know there is a lot of productive effectiveness and good will still left in this country.

If you want to see the individual photos on which the collages are based you are welcome to access different blog which I wrote about this.