Building the M1 motorway

by Nick Drew | Thu 22 Sep 2016

Building the M1 motorway

Many of us hurtle up and down the M1 these days and rarely give it a second thought that it was in fact the first motorway to open in the UK. Major motorway building work was all new in those days and it's great to look back now at how things were done.

This 1958 information film footage on the building of the M1 motorway, was made by the John Laing film unit and features some classic old machines from the Caterpillar, Euclid, Ruston Bucyrus and International stables. 1357319593_digger-blog-image-jan13

A wide variety of machines are included in the film including dozers, dumpers, dragline/cranes, graders, scrapers, rollers and much more, in an intriguing all our yesterday's style. It's well worth 18 minutes of anyone's time, and not a Hi-Viz jacket in sight, just the traditional donkey jacket that were the norm in those days! How did we ever manage to survive on site without all today's PPE! [youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8iLRrt_4Jw[/youtube]

The magazine for owners + operators

Digger Man Blog

Building the M1 motorway

Loads more

Getting Attached with Holp

Red & Grey all the way for Mays

It’s Intermat Time!

Subscribe to Earthmovers