Did you ever wonder how they move all that massive machinery (like the one in my second photo) around when they are doing projects like the OZA canal works or when they completely replace a building?
Well on the last night of my April trip I found out. It was exactly 12.45am just as I was going to bed in my Hotel Vijaya room on the OZV canal that I heard noises in the street. 2 large lorries containing massive wooden planks and 2 JCB like machines had pulled up outside. For the next hour there was the sound of beeping, engines, voices and banging while the planks were unloaded onto the street. WTF? I had absolutely no idea what was happening but I was getting seriously pissed off with it. Around 1.30am everything went quiet and at last I figured they had done what ever they were doing. WRONG! A low droning then started and got louder and louder. For the 50th time I looked out of my window and there was this massive piece of machinery with tank type tracks slowly moving along the narrow canal road. It was travelling along two rows of the huge wooden planks and finally I realised they had been laid to protect the cobbles.
Around 2.30am the machine had finally trundled down towards the Oudekerk and presumably on past the Bulldogs and out of audible range. Of course I knew this was not the end. For as far as I could see were the rows of giant planks which were then loaded back on the lorries over the next 90 minutes with more beeping, engines, voices and banging. I checked out of my window at around 4am as the last lorry left. Just as it did a guy who had obviously been waiting on the bridge was finally able to drive his car the short distance to his parking space outside a neighbouring building and it gave me slight comfort knowing he was probably more pissed off than me.