When did you become interested in Infrastructure?

veryangryman · 26-03-2010 12:53pm #1

I never really found any discussion of bypasses, roads etc interesting until i started driving myself (and even then not for a few years), but these days this is my favourite Boards forum.

I would have been around 24-25 when first got the interest. Its probably no coincidence that they started building a byapss of Moate around the same time. The visual progress of schemes up and down the country continues to fascinate

Anyone else care to share? :pac:

Joey Joe-Joe Jr · 26-03-2010 1:05pm

Pretty much the same as yourself, when I started driving alot.

Started working as a field service engineer around 2003 doing a good bit of milage between the cities and so got interested in the progress of the motorway network. This forum is great for keeping up to date.

DWCommuter · 26-03-2010 1:20pm

Sitting in the cab of my Dads truck in the late 70s/early 80s. I got to see tonnes of closed railway lines and developed an interest in the history.

It was also a great opportunity to compare our road infrastructure with those abroad. (A very depressing experience at the time)

ForiegnNational · 26-03-2010 1:22pm

Coming to Ireland Before Motorway, took me back to growing up in the UK in the 70's when all of ours were being built.

That and the frustration of driving the old N roads made me want to find out when they were being replaced!

Irish and Proud · 26-03-2010 2:38pm

My experience might be quite unique - I was fascinated with road infrastructure by the time I was (wait for it!!!) 10...

...yes, 10 years of age. What started my interest was actually two-fold. One factor was a childrens book about railways v roads - the illustration of a speghetti junction (a sea of stone arch bridges) fascinated me. This was reinforced when I saw Contract 1 of the Santry Bypass under construction - to see a flyover (something that one would not have come across very often in the Ireland of 1982 - aged 9 that year) was a totally new experience for me.

The second factor that got me going was when I saw a place (on the way to Kilkenny) where there were two roads side by side (also in the early 1980's) - I had just presumed that one road became too busy, so they just built another like it to make more room. I also remember seeing a car ahead in the right hand lane and asked my mam & dad 'why was he on the wrong side of the road'. I think they tried to explain the situation but I didn't quite understand. However, I was in the car with just my dad (on another occasion) when we were driving in the same place and asked dad - "Why are there two roads? Is it just to make more room? Then he explained to me that these two roads were called a dual carriageway - that we travel on this side while cars going the other way travel on the other side. I think he might he told me that we were on the Naas Dual Carriageway. This completely fascinated me. Also the Naas Bypass totally fascinated me, especially when I learned (in 1983 aged 10) that is was a motorway - imagine, a motorway in Ireland!

At 10 years of age, I was even showing people how motorway junctions work - like the one a Maudlins Naas. However, I will never forget when I (at 11 years of age) flew with my mother and two sisters into a goldmine - GLASGOW (in 1984) - this was absolute heaven to me - I will never forget it - the M8 was the ultimate to me. This motorway looked so slick (with all the flyovers) and futuristic (especially in the city centre) compared to what we had in Ireland. I just didn't want to leave the city, but of course knew I had to. After the trip, my dad went the main road (for me) on the way home from the airport and drove the Swords Bypass - I knew it was a brand new road, but it was nothing compared to what I saw in Glasgow. I did get to see the M8 this year though (oh, wrong one

). Seriously, I would love to see Glasgow's M8 and the Baillieston Spaghetti (4 levels) again. BTW, the M8 to Cork is pretty impressive too!

I'l have to go now!

roosterman71 · 26-03-2010 2:59pm

I'm kinda like Irish and Proud. I always liked driving from an early age. And going around with my Dad in the truck through all mad backroads is a strong memory. I remember him saying that I'd have to travel all these roads one day (he was wrong) so I started to remember the way to places, what road to take, where to turn, etc etc. And as I got older, I'd try be figuring out in my head which way was fastest, if there were new ways to get to places and so on.

I still do that to this day. Before a trip I always try figure out my route. I have a knack of remembering how I got to places after 1 trip (although I use a sat nav nowadays if i'm goin to somewhere completely new).

I really got into the road infrastructure thing though when rumours of a new M7 were mooted. And the interest really kicked in when the prefferred route was announced and it was going to slice my farm in 2.

wellbutty · 26-03-2010 3:03pm

I was around 10 as well, even got a camera at that time to take road building photos...i.e. Glenmore bypass, Belview Road, Belview jetty etc

CerebralCortex · 26-03-2010 3:21pm

I suppose I became aware of an interest in infrastructure in college when I would have to wait 40min to an hour for a bus from Renmore to Galway city center or not being able to get broadband anywhere.

paulm17781 · 26-03-2010 3:29pm

When I used the tube when I was about 18. I suddenly realised how poor out public transport options were.

larryone · 26-03-2010 4:44pm

Began with a fascination with cartography from a very young age. Grew up in a house full of maps
I still remember the first couple of times going onto the M50 in the van with dad. Remember being disappointed at having to leave the motorway =0)
Cartography obsession continued, and the infrastructure intererst comes from it.
Driving certainly had an impact, the wait for a new stretch of motorway to open...
Now contributing regularly to OpenStreetMap and keep my eye on this place regularly.

101sean · 26-03-2010 4:52pm

Also from a young age with me, going on site with my father from about age 9 (couldn't do it now!) and collecting pictures of bulldozers instead of football teams :rolleyes: I think a career in the industry was pre-ordained.

Spent 20 years working for local councils in the UK, eventually got fed up with installing speed humps and bus lanes for political reasons and went and worked in the real world. Another 8 pleasant years then wandering around London Underground and Network Rail surveying and mapping drains.

Moved here at completely the wrong time as the Celtic Tiger died but got a job on the N7 Nenagh to Limerick as a section engineer, most stressful 7 months of my life (and I was nowhere near bog off doom!) until I jacked that in

Currently mapping the the drainage on the Victoria Line from the comfort of my lounge for my old company, just done the Central Line. Easy life, someone else does the dirty work and I draw it up at my leisure, have to go back to the UK now and then though.

Interested in both road and rail infrastructure (along with flaky culchie broadband), following several threads with interest!

peter1892 · 26-03-2010 5:19pm

I was obsessed with maps from a young age. Seeing maps of the UK in the early/mid 1980's was a bittersweet experience, I loved the fact that they had a substantial motorway network, and was jealous that ours was pretty much non-existent.

That and the fact that I can remember being stuck for what seemed like hours in places like Newbridge, Port Laoise, Balbriggan etc when I was a kid.

The road network we now have is the stuff of dreams!

L1011 · 26-03-2010 6:23pm

Mainly when I got a job that requires me to drive bloody *EVERYWHERE*. I've driven ever single section of HQDC/Motorway in the country (thanks to today) - and indeed every KM of the national primary network - and I've only about 200km of national secondary undone!

KevR · 26-03-2010 9:49pm

I was interested in roads and rail from a young age, long before I was old enough to drive.

Remember being in absolute awe of the London Underground as a kid, still am today! Also, remember being on the M25 in London and passing under the 4-level stacks - a bridge over a bridge over a bridge(!), as a kid I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Totally fascinted by it!

The Athlone Bypass and old sections of M4/M50 used to be my favourite parts of the Galway-Dublin road journey even before I could drive. Loved the feeling of being on a free-flowing busy road; instead of being stuck behind a tractor or something as usual. We had DCs in Galway back then but no GSJs so it you didn't get the same feeling when you had to keep slowing down for every at-grade. roundabout.

Carawaystick · 26-03-2010 10:54pm

I'd say I'd be like Irish and proud,
We went "Gallivanting" with the auld fella at the weekends and exploring all sorts of infrastructure - They built the linkspans for Ringaskiddy port in Arklow, we could climb in and though them they were on the quay for ages.
When they were building the 220kV line by Arklow we went out to the forest to look at the pylons- they were lying sideways on the ground

my sis and me went with my da into the water reservoir in Arklow beside the water tower before it was filled, it's about the size of a soccer pitch and the only light into it was through a square metre hatch in the roof.

We had a look at the junction of the North ring at Tivoli in Cork and tried to figure out how it worked- before any of the ramps onto or off the N8 were built.

That's all back in the early 80's or so and I 'm only 32 -so I was a smallie when I got into it- It was like bigger proper diggers, rather than dinky toys!

Stinicker · 26-03-2010 11:02pm

I think that playing games such as simcity 2, simcity three and 4 and Railroad Tycoon 2 & 3 sparked my interest in Infrastructure , plus trying to figure out maps for the new motorways also helped!

DWCommuter · 27-03-2010 12:18am

Carawaystick wrote: »

I'd say I'd be like Irish and proud,
We went "Gallivanting" with the auld fella at the weekends and exploring all sorts of infrastructure - They built the linkspans for Ringaskiddy port in Arklow, we could climb in and though them they were on the quay for ages.
When they were building the 220kV line by Arklow we went out to the forest to look at the pylons- they were lying sideways on the ground

my sis and me went with my da into the water reservoir in Arklow beside the water tower before it was filled, it's about the size of a soccer pitch and the only light into it was through a square metre hatch in the roof.

We had a look at the junction of the North ring at Tivoli in Cork and tried to figure out how it worked- before any of the ramps onto or off the N8 were built.

That's all back in the early 80's or so and I 'm only 32 -so I was a smallie when I got into it- It was like bigger proper diggers, rather than dinky toys!

Speaking of things Electricity, I remember watching the Dam Busters (Great Film) at about 8 years of age one Summer Sunday. The next weekend I was taken out to see a "real" Dam at Pollaphouca. Over the fence we went (yes, tresspassing) and down to the Dam. It was very anti climactic, as it was so small compared to that awesome dam in the film.

Afterwards it was a case of Skimming stones in the Blessington lakes ala the bouncing bombs.:D

Orchard Rebel · 27-03-2010 9:32am

At the age of 5 I became fascinated by motorways. I recently came across a school book from my junior infants class in which I'd drawn a junction on the M6 (the UK one obviously).

By age 10 I was designing grade separated junctions. My mother said I'd end up working for McAlpine.

Quite how I didn't go into surveying/road construction remains a mystery to me....

Plowman · 27-03-2010 2:25pm

This post has been deleted.

CUCINA · 27-03-2010 3:10pm

I was around ten or eleven when I became fascinated with maps, still have an ordnance survey map of the greater Dublin area dated 1965...Places like Clondalkin and Tallaght are shown as little villages, with long country roads linking them to the city.
This interest in maps led to curiosity when they started building the Chapelizod by-pass which was near where I lived at the time,(twenty-five years ago?), so I started taking photos as the work progressed, and making regular before-and-after comparisons etc.
I remember asking one guy on the site how they were going to make a roundabout at the junction of South Cicular Road and St. John's Road because I just couldn't see how they were going to manage it...but of course they did in the end, sort of!
When I lived in Lucan, near the Newcastle junction at Lucan village, they started building the dual-carriageway (around 1988) and that looked the bee's knees at the time. So more photos of that followed..and so on.

I also remember as a kid standing outside a small pub on the Naas Road called the Red Cow (did Brendan Grace have some association with the pub at the time?) and wondering why they were making a hole in the middle of the road, and digging up the fields on either side of it. Fast forward to the M5O and the roundabout!

SprostonGreen · 27-03-2010 9:58pm

Stinicker wrote: »

I think that playing games such as simcity 2, simcity three and 4 and Railroad Tycoon 2 & 3 sparked my interest in Infrastructure , plus trying to figure out maps for the new motorways also helped!

Me too. When I played Sim City 4 on the PC, I thought this is fantastic, building a city from the ground up, people and businesses clearing out because you made a bags of it. Then getting it right and attracting high skilled people and hi-tech business. Not to mention the the transport links, I'm a total nerd.

Its weird too, when I used to smoke the ganja I used to think about city expansion and imagine perfect cities. I suppose other people preferred munching on skittles.:pac:

When did you become interested in Infrastructure?

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