use a giant machine that’s how!

So they’re tearing up a small strip of 41st Avenue in Long Island City, which is great news for me because this was already my preferred avenue to turn onto to head home after making my way to the north side of Queens Plaza. And not preferred because it was nice – it was actually a real pain, full of abrasions and contours, but it was the most-direct route for me, and relatively light traffic except during peak rush hours (of non-commercial traffic heading to the Queensboro Bridge). So this repave should make my journey home – which is what I was doing when I took these shots – that much more at ease.



The guy driving the Wirtgen W-500 asked if I was papparazzi! Hah. He would occasionally use his t-shirt as a mask, and also that machine is really interesting. It seems like its sole purpose is to tear up the asphalt around manhole covers. It has a grinder in the back and can turn on a zero-point if necessary. Which is what they did to make the manhole .GIF above, and they removed that manhole ring to the side – not sure why this is, if they plan on reducing the height of the street or somehow re-encasing the manhole cover in some new design, only time will tell.