The Joys of Road Construction

Our neighborhood is in the midst of several road reconstruction projects. After seeing activity on surrounding streets for months, it was finally our street’s turn. Let me tell you, there is no better entertainment for young kids than this.

We’ve got 20-ton road graters, backhoes, dump trucks, a steam roller, and all sorts of strange and wonderful construction vehicles rumbling past our house all day.

There’s a large water tanker truck that will come by to spray water on the dusty site after they’ve scraped and rolled the street. I know when it comes by because I hear the clarion call of, “Water truck!” followed by the sound of three or four pairs of bare feet slapping down the hallway to the front window.

Several of the boys are convinced the water truck operator can jet water so precisely that they could take a five gallon bucket next to the road and he could fire a stream of water into it. I’m not sure, but think attempting this would be a win for me either way.

For the first week of construction the 5-year-old would report every night at dinner on all the HUGE dump trucks or bulldozers he saw. The 2-year-old would accompany his descriptions with exaggerated gesticulations and excited chatter that went in and out of coherence. She may not know what the vehicles are called but she knows they’re a big deal.

I get it though. It’s rare for the kids to be this close to the action when it comes to construction vehicles. Even I’ve been mesmerized by the work. I don’t know how they can maneuver that 15-foot scraper with the finesse to be a fraction of an inch from the curb as they’re scraping an entire street.

And the power of these pieces of equipment is impressive. At one point, the whole house was shaking and I had to go to the front window to see what beast of a machine could be making this much noise and vibration. The driver of the steamroller must have gotten a kick out of seeing 16 pairs of eyes gazing out at him as he went by.

As much as the kids are loving this, there are some downsides to having your street become a construction site. The house rattling noise becomes more irritating and less impressive the longer it goes on. Some of the front loader drivers seem to think they’re in a race and go down the street way faster than necessary. Which makes getting out of the driveway a nerve-racking experience. Driving in the mud and over the uneven road base isn’t anyone’s favorite thing either.

It’ll be nice when the work is done, although the kids are going to miss the construction vehicles. I think our neighbors might miss the din of construction work as well. It did a good job covering up the din of another crew that makes a lot of noise on this street.