Got it done with no DEI hires

Don,t forget the IRISH workers backbreaking work and Glad to do so they were born to Emigrate Ireland had nothing to offer them ,

To complete 19 months to build the M1, British engineering at its best over engineered to last for ever. Built by proper men to last, unlike now men who work at a shyt slow pace quality is down the drain... on all the roads, at every turn another set of lights with roadworks. Same place Dig it up again and again fixing the same place again and again....

Why are some of them labeled A something anyway? shouldn't it be E or B for england or britian?

It must have been a great positive time, when investment was building things, so different these days

Remove the politics, environmentalists, health and safety and all the red tape. Throw bags of money at it and employ the right people and look what can be achieved. Those days are long gone.

Hoping to catch a glimpse of my grandad. He was a Navi driver on this. I remember his old donkey jacket with the L.

All that beautiful countryside ruined forever…

I would like to know how “congested” an A road was in 1958. 🤔

19 months for the entire 55 miles of the M1, and its taking 3.5 years to rebuild the Black Cat roundabout? We have gone very wrong somewhere.

Funny how both the railway lines mentioned would later close in the mid-60s. Coincidence?

Isn’t it still in progress. It’s embarrassing

I would imagine Ernest Marples got a fat backhander out of this. One of many.

Amazing👍

My late father in law Roy Selway worked for Laing in those days and cut his teeth on the M1. He became a Senior Purchasing Agent for the Company and was heavily involved with the reconstruction of both Coventry Cathedral and the BullRing/New Street Station in Birmingham. Proud man and a real gentleman with an encyclopedic knowledge of Laing Construction from an era that required brain power before computers took over.

19 months 55 miles 16 mill. Shows you how much these companies are pinching money in these company projects

these old footage reels are all staged events to condition you

interstest the amout of railway line they crossed that are no longer now there

Where did it all go wrong? Unions? Brits being generally lazy bastards?

Is it just me or can no one else see a river where the viaducts are? I can see a stream but no river.

I absolutely detest the M1. Spent many an hour on there, it’s very depressing.

Canadians came over to cut down the trees it was a massive job

Back when government and companies invested in the country infrastructure and workers. now they just rob us blind They need _______ing

This is how much it would have cost today when you factor in inflation: £81,108,272.01

No safety glasses - wonder how many eyes were lost?

The Italians and Germans built their motorway network in the 30’s. Ours many years later.

If only they made it 6 lanes aside and concrete blocks down the middle when they first started building it!!!!

Moved to Newcastle in 2009. The A1 that goes through the middle of it was being upgraded then and a 50mph work force zone. Its now 2024 and they are still absolutely nowhere near finishing it.

Oh how white and male they are. This wouldn't be allowed these days.

Incredible feat of engineering, would never be done in 19 months these days,too much health and safety bullshit, when people wanted to work.

19 months to make 55 miles of dual carriageway from scratch yet its taking what seems like 4 years to make some emergency laybys near Sheffield! 😅

Gracious me 16 million for 55 miles of motorway built in under two years. These days it costs that to fix a pothole in two years.

So...19 months...or around the same amount of time to build a couple of dozen 'safety areas' on the M1 now...WOW. How lame are we now?

How were the UK railways constructed in the 1840´s without all this machinery & technology?

so fast to build but the idiots nowadays are still repairing the ouse bridge for about two years

They shut the Great Central Mainline Railway to justify building the M1. They built it alongside the GCR!

has tarmac been invented yet ?

Ah, the good old days when everyone was working hard. Today we have 20 people in hi-vis watching one working, when he is not on his phone.

Today, they would have 5,000 consultants doubling the time and tripling the cost. Look at HS2, £16bn budget, now £70bn and only half is being built, 5 years behind schedule. The 1950’s, when Britain actually work, Ed!

Progress has only slowed us down.

Ahhh back in the days when you could doze a Forrest before breakfast and nobody missed a beat

When men were men and woman wore the braces 😎

Imagine Angela Raynor trying to manage a huge development like the M1, she`d be too busy at a rave in Ibza

😢😮men were men back then now they dont even want to get dirty and cost after being sub contracted out 5 times for each tender its inflated to 1 billion per mile and a year plus to do that mile 😂

It shows how technology has changed the way we do things. There is a project here to build two bridges and a mile of motorway, it is to take two years and the M1 was done in 18 months.

ahhhhhhh ... the days of empire when britain actually constructed things

My Grandfather Worked on it Right up to The End he layed the Concrete finish on it the whole way With Fitzpatrick Ltd . With a Massive Concrete Finishing machine.

Thats how it should be do e nowadays get on with it no messing plan it properly job done its taken 2years to put some emergency laybys in on the M1 what are they playi g at

It was built in a different era with different rules. No health and safety, no complex construction contracts, very little existing infrastructure to divert, no complex planning rules.

HS2 take notice won’t happen now counties not got a pot to piddle in