WORKING WHEN THE HEAT IS ON

Contractors engaged in the construction of the M40 motorway have taken full advantage of the dry hot summer of 1989 to make up for time lost in a wet April. The article describes how a variety of plant, from articulated dump trucks and large excavators to motor scrapers, blades and boxes, is coping with the work. On the Gaydon section, the motorway passes through the centre of a 15 year-old landfill site where the material is designated as being hazardous waste. A layer of cohesive clay from the excavation basin is being used as an impervious blanket to seal off the waste. There are no major fill areas on the contract, most of the fill is on side roads where embankments are required at the approaches to the motorway structures. Dump truck and excavator activity is concentrated at both ends of the contract as far as the bulk earthworks are concerned. Three off-site tips have been set up to dispose of surplus materials. A new bridge over the river Avon has been built at the northern end of the contract to link the motorway with Warwick and Coventry.