Seek and you shall find (or something)

I was driving home to Chatham yesterday along the A2 and I passed by this crane.

It is a biggy. 500 ton lifting capacity. It was in place to lift sections of a new bridge being constructed to replace the bridge I was standing on when I took the shot. I went back later in the evening and hung around to see the thing in action.

I took a load of pictures of the actual lift. It was a bit tricky with the light conditions - the glare of powerful halogen lamps combined with the darkness of the night. I tried a few different settings and came away with a bunch of shots I thought I could make something of.

When I was waiting I met the fella who was responsible for overseeing the project for the Highways Agency. He was a friendly sort and very chatty about his work. I learned a lot about roadworks that I'd never even thought about before. It was good he was willing to chat as there was a fair bit of hanging around before the lift happened. In all I was on the bridge for about 3 hours or so.

I got home just before midnight hence the lack of a post yesterday. I'm still going for daily posts but I guess it's better to be out there doing stuff than to be glued to the computer.

I've never given it much thought but the process to cone off the roads and filter the traffic so the construction crew could get on with the job is a bit more involved than what meets the eye. They wait until the traffic flow gets down to 20 cars a minute before they do what they need to do to redirect it. For that reason it was difficult to predict when the lift would begin hence all the hanging around. I guess that is what you have to do if you want to get the photographs your after some times.

This foray was quite coincidental with what I shall be up to next week a few miles down the road from here. Funny how sometimes opportunities present themselves once you put yourself on the playing field. I suppose I know how obvious that is but just choose to ignore it most of the time and procrastinate!