The following story is to be taken with a pinch of salt, and is in no way intended as any kind of verified truth
We're currently in Corfu (again). On Tuesday we got together with some friends who live here, to have a few beers and a general catch up.
We were joined by a Greek guy (We'll call him Yanis), who now spends most of his time working in construction in England. We don't often get to see Yanis, as when we're in Corfu, he's in England, and when we're in England, he works down south and we are up north
Anyway, he was telling us he is now working on a road building project that is attached to HS2. You may have been wondering why the costs of HS2 have ballooned out of control, and his story may provide some insight, but it's unverified and could very well be bollocks
The base of the road is made of rocks which are delivered in by many rock carrying trucks. They will prepare the bed, the rocks get dumped and then they fettle the rocks ready for the next stage of whatever material goes down
At this point, they need to be inspected. The inspector turns up and declares the rocks unusable, as they have been improperly prepared for the next layer. The inspector then says that the rocks cannot be fettled further, but must be removed and binned
The rock people then turn up again and collect the rocks to take them away to be binned. And by binned, they mean sold again to another part of the project
The rock people then turn up with new rocks for the road, which also have been paid for. The rocks are dumped and fettled and the inspector called in again. And the inspector declares the surface unsuitable and the rocks have to be removed
This happens on average, ten times before the rocks are declared good, and the next surface of the road can be added
All the rocks are sold, removed and resold during each stage of this process
Now I've known Yanis for some time and I would not say he's prone to flights of fancy, but he does enjoy a beer or two, and some folk can be tempted to embellish their tales after a few scoops, and he's no different
Anyway, that's the story he told me. Make of it what you will
I'll be here enjoying the sun for another week
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