The City of Phoenix, Arizona has a light rail system that runs from downtown Mesa 30 miles to the southeast past the airport, through the center of town, and northwest to a major shopping center called ChrisTown on the corner of  19th Avenue and Bethany Home Road. That shopping center is only 3/4 of a mile from where I live. The City  has decided to extend the line another 3  miles north along 19th Avenure. That goes within two blocks of my apartment, and creates all kinds of traffic problems as 19th Avenue was a major thoroughfare for this part of town. Of course that means that all kinds of heavy equipment is always working on 19th Ave.

Perhaps it is the kid in me, the part that never grew up, but I kind of like to watch heavy construction equipment in action. I frequently walk around the neighborhood, and have seen bulldozers, scorpions, dumptrucks, cranes and other stuff in action. I’ve often wished I had my camera with me when I witnessed some construction in progress. On Monday, May 20, 2014, I set out to take a morning walk, and I brought the camera with the idea that I would take pix of all the heavy equipment I saw upon the way.  This is that record.

Water truck. Construction stirs up a lot of dust, and the solution is to wet the dirt down and deal with mud instead. Go figure!

Looking north on 19th Avenue, the sign warns me that I’m in a Work Zone

Part of the job is widening 19th Avenue.

There are a lot of palm trees in my part of town.

Dig holes, make piles of dirt.

Then park the digger on top of the dirt. Does that make sense?

Glorified fork lift in action

Make mud now.

A lot of the job seems to be telling men where to guide the monsters.

Giant pipes will be going underground somewhere nearby.

Construction yard.

White truck. It’s hard to say anything brilliant. I don’t think the best machines were at work this day.

I’ve run out of dumb things to say. From here on, the pictures will have to tell their own story.

19th Avenure and Northern, so messed up–1 miles of men at work.

Some of the work extends onto Northern Avenue. Beyond this point there was nothing worth photographing.

 

So, why is the really heavy equipment all yellow while the trucks are all white?  Inquiring minds want to know.

This blog has been just a slice of my life–nothing special, but it’s kind of fun to watch these machines in action and imagine oneself as the driver.

I call this blog Atroll’s Entertainment. As you can see, I’m easily amused. 🙂

 

If you’ve ever worked on a road construction crew, why not leave a comment?

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