Chris Gidez - Producer

The 47,000-mile American interstate system is only 50 years old, but within the context of world history, every modern road’s roots date back to the Romans. The only differences between past and present-day roadways are in their material, design and technology. But, no matter how advanced the engineering gets, there remains the fact that roads don’t build themselves. Men and women must still perform the difficult and dangerous physical labor that goes into building our essential interstate infrastructure.

To document some of the amazing engineering and brave work behind the scenes of America’s interstates, I set out with host Kevin Moore and our camera crew to visit five major construction sites in three states. Each project represents incredible solutions to the most common and sometimes unforeseen problems we see out on the highways – chief amongst them are the punishment and deterioration caused by extreme weather and heavy loads. And what struck me at each construction site we visited, were the ingenious techniques and logistical solutions employed to build new – and rebuild old – interstate highways.

To keep our focus on one major artery, we visited construction projects along the Interstate 35 / “NAFTA Corridor” – the main North American trade route through the US between the Mexican border in Texas and Canadian border in Minnesota. For good measure, we also took a look at projects around the hub of East/West transportation, Chicago, Illinois. At their foundation, each of the five projects was underway to address increased volumes of traffic.

In Laredo, Texas – near the busiest Mexican border crossing in the U.S. – contractors were busy repaving and widening Interstate 35, in order to handle the most destructive type of traffic – big rig trucks – which pulse along the road 24 hours a day. I was impressed with the stamina of workers paving 300F-degree hot asphalt in the 100F-degree Texas summer. One member of the paving crew told me “you get used to” the constant heat and fumes of the asphalt.

Due north, in the Austin metro area, a brand new highway is being built to bypass heavy congestion through the state’s capital. The new road is called SH-130, and here the contractor is using concrete pavement, instead of hot asphalt. Even so, this work is still pretty grueling. Embedded in the pavement is a structural matrix of steel re-bar – which must first be laid down by a small crew of men who perform their jobs like an elite troop of soldiers. First they place the steel rods down on a grid of supports, which result in a perfectly geometric arrangement. Then they quickly and efficiently tie the bar crossings with wire. I was blown away by how choreographed these workers were. I became especially impressed once I was thrust with my crew into the controlled chaos of the concrete paving process.

We witnessed a cavalcade of construction equipment working in unison when we filmed on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. One of the work sites is a new lane being wedged between active highway traffic and the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line trains. Adding to the risk of being run over was a constant stream of giant dump trucks filled with wet concrete. Every minute or so, a new one pulls up ahead of the paving machines to release a flood of wet concrete from its payload. When filming this process, it is very easy find oneself in the way of one mechanism or another. Which explains why we were being yelled and honked at throughout the shoot. Not that we could hear anything through the deafening din of traffic, trains and heavy machinery.

It was a little more laid back, but still dangerous, 30 miles away in the Chicago suburbs near in Lemont, Illinois. We were here to film the high wire act of a new bridge being erected across the Des Plaines River Valley, where an extension of Interstate 355 was being built. It doesn’t matter how high the ironworkers do their jobs – I’m always impressed by how easily they seem to negotiate the sliver of a walkway at 100 feet off the ground. What’s even more impressive is how the workers guide the gigantic, 132-ton concrete beams being hoisted onto small landings atop supporting piers. The two crane operators and 4 ironworkers seem to know exactly what each other are thinking, although they do use radios to communicate. While the bridge building process is incredibly technical, such a gravity-defying feat leaves me so enthralled, I could sit for hours just watching the cranes raise one beam after another. That is, if I weren’t so concerned about capturing every aspect of the operation on camera.

The challenge of being everywhere at once was heightened when I arrived with my host and camera crew at the massive “Unweave the Weave” construction site, outside of St. Paul, Minnesota. This unusually named project is designed to untangle the dangerous interchange at the intersection of I-35E and I-694 – where an outdated traffic pattern design has caused huge headaches as the volume of traffic has risen. I’ve never seen so many stages of work being performed so simultaneously. At one end of the mile and a half long project, old road is being demolished. Not far away, a new flyover ramp is being erected with steel beams. And then in another area, a concrete barrier median is being poured using a special machine with a sliding form. All the while, traffic pulses through the entire construction zone with only one detour. While the workers continued to impress me, I also gained an appreciation for the level of organization orchestrated by the engineers in charge. Without their careful planning and execution, it would have been impossible to demolish and rebuild an entirely new interchange while accommodating the everyday volume of traffic.

Filming this documentary has given me a new perspective on everyday road-travel. Next time I’m stuck in traffic due to construction, I’ll try to avoid becoming frustrated. With my newfound respect, I’ll try to be thankful for all the hard work that goes into these mega-structures. But, then again, like most impatient motorists who depend on interstate highways for timesaving speed, I have a feeling my level of tolerance might vary depending on how late I’m running.

Man-Made:Super Roads airs this Thursday at 7p et/pt, followed by Incredible Islands: Dubai at 8p et/pt and Impossible Hotel at 9p et/pt.