New Streets

The sound of a very large motor starting brought me out of sleep last Monday, and from the bedroom window, I could see the shadows of an assortment of at least six huge vehicles, accentuated by scores of small yellow lights which dotted their outlines. One by one, they made their way up the road and around to the street outside our house. We were to be the starting point of the new road!

Bee-beeeep, bee-beeeep, bee-beep!!  Rumble, rumble, rumble, crash!! A dinosaur-like machine began to tear up, chew up, and spit out the asphalt street in front of our homes into truck after  colorful truck. A bright green one would fill, and drive away to be immediately replaced by another; shiny maroon or sky blue. Then a pair of yellow Bobcats worked in tandem, much like a broom and dustpan, to lift out huge black remaining chunks and carry them to waiting trucks for removal. In a matter of hours, every trace of blacktop was removed on "The West Side" of Las Brisas, leaving clean, packed dirt.

The next morning, before light as before, the behemoths came to life again, intent on refilling every dirt-packed spot with steaming hot asphalt. Each truck slowly rolled in perfect timing with the spreader, filling it from the top so it could distribute new paving from under its odd-looking mechanism. Men walked along, checking the depth of the load with probes as it poured from under the machine. And then the rolling began! Over and over until they were satisfied with the surface, the roller went back and forth. In cartoons, the Roadrunner often got caught under the roller and survived…huh uh!! Anything under that became flatter than an Saran Wrap!

Before nightfall, they were finished with our streets, and would begin the whole process again on the East side. It was noisy, it was smelly, we couldn't drive out, but it was so worth it! Our streets will be good for years to come.