Alfred McAlpines A30 Memories

I recently posted a large selection of photos on the excellent Facebook page Remember Sir Alfred McAlpines & Sons Ltd, which were very well received, so I thought I would create a blog post showing a small selection of those images here on the Digger Man Blog.

In these days where so many are craving internet stardom and trying to be the next Steven Spielberg video creator, there is still something magical about old photos and as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

It’s often said that McAlpine’s were the king of the UK road building sector and had a highly experienced team who could tackle the jobs in the correct manner, more often than not bringing it to a completion ahead of schedule and within budget, a skill set that seems to have been largely lost these days, despite all the advances in technology.

The A30 improvement scheme in Cornwall, was one of the last major road projects undertaken by McAlpine’s before it was sold off and comprised of 11.5km of new dual carriageway with two grade-separated junctions between Indian Queens Bypass and Bodmin Bypass. Nine major structures were built to carry side roads and accesses over and under the new road which opened.

Construction on the new bypass started on the 11th July 2005, 10 years after the last dualling scheme on the A30 opened (The Fraddon and Indian Queens bypass, just to the west). During construction, 90% (700,000 tonnes) of waste China Clay from nearby St Austell was used in construction of the road.

Sometime in 2006, I had been working away up in Cambridge with my old pals at James King Plant, when I got an offer of work on the A30 for Devon based Luke Furse Earthmoving, initially I was told it was around 6 weeks work, but I wanted to get back home so I took the job operating a Volvo EC210.

It was long 12-hour days, 6 days a week, but it was an exciting project to be working on and that 6 weeks turned out to be well over 6 months in the end. I had never worked on such a large road building project during my career, so it was good to have something to get stuck into.

I was paired up with a great “slasherman” (banksman) who I only ever knew as London John, we got on well and had a good understanding, out overall works manager was Les Bell, a well-known name on Mac’s, it was Les who gave me the nickname “polish” because I was always cleaning the machine. He would allocate our jobs which a lot of the time were digging out for ecology lagoons or lay-bys or topsoil finishing work, which was a particular favourite of mine.

In the early stages it felt like brand new kit was arriving every day, with new excavators from Komatsu, and articulated haulers from Bell and Caterpillar being put to work, for those of us with a serious interest in machines, it was heaven!

In one particular area, we went into to start digging out for a lagoon, but quickly discovered that the moorland was especially boggy, however a lad on a fairly new Komatsu D65 dozer said he could save time and push it out. Despite us saying it could be a problem, he gave it a go and quickly became stuck, so I had to go in and help extricate him from the quagmire!

Articulated haulers also came to grief in the area, so it was all rather challenging to say the least, but of course we got it done true to form. I especially recall getting that one completed, as a day after I headed off on my annual holiday, safe in the knowledge that we got the job done.

The wealth of experience on this job was amazing, the motor grader operators for example, always had a tale to tell, and excavator operators who only had to look at a bank of soil to make the cut correct when trimming batters etc.

Having come largely from the small civils and house bashing side of construction myself, it was a great eye opener as to what could be achieved and I think I learnt a lot on this job. Although by my own admission I was never going to make it as a full-on “muck savage” as I had always been more of a steady old plodder on the machines, but that was my style, take it or leave it.

Reading the comments on the previously mentioned Facebook page, it reminded me of the great camaraderie that we had on that job, and no doubt on countless other McAlpine projects up and down the country, something that will largely never be rekindled on such projects again, as such I dedicate this post to all Ex-McAlpine men and women who spent time on such a fantastic firm.

Here's some grainy footage I came across courtesy of kernow75 on You Tube, featuring a TV report on the opening day of this stretch of road.