Near where I live the authorities are constructing a roundabout on the junction of State Highway 1 and the off road down to Waitarere Beach. At this point SH1 is single lanes each way and the surrounding land is flat, open farmland without trees. It could not be easier for building a simple roundabout. Construction started on 29 October 2025, and the Ministry is now crowing that it will be all finished in November 2026. Eleven months to build a roundabout in the most ideal conditions and on one of the busiest roads (SH1) where one would have thought speed of the essence so as not to hold up traffic.

In 1881 my great, great-grandfather, also John McLean and a contractor, built a good, strong bridge over Cox’s Creek in Auckland in one month. In the same year he built the Whatawhata Bridge in the Waikato. It was a truss bridge extending from steep bank to steep bank. At 520 feet long (158 metres) it consisted of two 80 foot spans (each supported on 16 piles of totara), seven 40 foot spans (each on 8 piles) and four 20 foot spans (each on 6 piles). Some fifteen tons of iron were used while the approaches on each side were sodded and metalled, the roadway being fourteen feet wide. And how long did it take to do all this in a remote area and with hand tools before the age of machinery? SEVEN MONTHS.

So, we have progressed from building a large bridge in seven months to laying out a roundabout on flat land in double that time. In those days things were built by lions; to-day they are built by donkeys.

John McLean