Saturday February 28, 1998
Road recycling
Juggernaught roadbuilding machines have been churning up the String Road this week. By the weekend the brow of the hill should have one of those quite smooth surfaces which have been popping up in short stretches here and there over the last few years.
This one is unusual because, as roads engineer Geoff Norris says, the road is being recycled. This has not only been made for less disruption, but less cost, and the 520 metre stretch will cost a mere £45,000 – cheap by roadbuilding standards. Instead of bringing in new materials the machines are churning up the exiting road. What was Tarmac then becomes soft. It is then levelled and bonded with cement and a surface is laid over the top. This precludes the need for bulky materials being shipped and great mounds of old tar to be disposed of.
Geoff said it is the first time this recycling method has been tried on Arran and is therefore experimental from his point of view. It is hardy and especially suitable for, at 235 metres, the highest road on Arran.
Blooming marvellous
With March approaching we are told to expect colder weather but until now this has been the mildest of winters and what better way to identify that but with trees and plants. Many people will have unseasonably early buds in their garden but Isobel Miller of Lamlash has flowers on a tree in her garden which should not be growing here at all. It is an Acacia Mimosa whose natural habitat is the Mediterranean.
This tree is even more unusual in that it was taken from a cutting at the castle just eight years ago. She was told then that it would not survive. It has not only survived but thrived and is now a fine strong tree of about 20 feet tall. It is also covered in small, scented yellow flowers and could be living proof of global warming.
Platform party
The last night of the Arran Drama Festival will begin tonight (Saturday) with a one act comedy performed and part directed by pupils from Arran High. The play is Platform Party, by Alan Richardson, and is set in present day Scotland, on the last night of an amateur drama festival. The play portrays all too clearly the many ways in which the presentation ceremony can be painfully drawn out, and how frustrating it can be, not only for the players, but for organisers and adjudicators too.
This year 11 different drama groups have rehearsed and prepared plays to, hopefully, entertain and perhaps even win a trophy.
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