Paving a New Road / myLot

United States

March 25, 2019 3:23pm CST

Paving a New Road Over the remains of the one they'd dug out. This is the second week. The first week was spent scraping it down, measuring around the sewers or whatever they were doing. Now, apparently, they have begun putting new asphalt down. Did you know that the Italians were the ones to pave the roads in Britain? It's True, or so Tony Robinson tells me on the documentaries about Worst Jobs. Yes, they wore only slippers and used a long stick made of iron, a square plate was affixed to this. They would use it to tamp down the asphalt. It was hot work as the asphalt had to be very very hot. They wore slippers, I think because the tread of a regular shoe wouldn't do. I'm not sure though. I'll be walking down my road to see if they've finished paving the road above mine. Do you think I should tell these pavers about the job that their predecessors would have had to undergo? Or do you think they already know?

3 people like this

3 responses

Elizabeth

@Poppylicious (11134)

• United Kingdom

26 Mar 19

Well, technically it was the Romans, many of whom may never have set foot in Italy. Yeh, I'm a pedant. Shoot me. A lot of roads in Britain are based on old Roman ones. They're generally long and straight. In fact, I *think* the A1 road, which goes all the way from London to Edinburgh, is part- based on a Roman road, or maybe the Roman's just used what tracks were already there.

1 person likes this

AmberLynn

@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)

• United States

26 Mar 19

All I can say is what Tony Robinson on "Worst Jobs In History" told me.

He didn't really go into much detail on that point, just that the "Italians" were paid very poor wages for it and something to do with a belief that their feet were tougher.