Chapter 738 - 465: On Site (2)

Chapter 738: Chapter 465: On Site (2)

A fierce wind howled past, blowing the snow off the ground and gradually revealing a flat road surface.

"This is the new road?" Feng Shan couldn’t help but ask, his eyes filled with astonishment.

Hearing this, Old Li let out a chuckle, his face beaming with pride as he spoke loudly.

"What do you think? Pretty flat, right? I’m not just bragging, but this road we built? You could drive a hundred-ton truck over it without a single issue. Our engineering quality is top-notch!"

Listening to Old Li, Feng Shan knew.

’There was a good deal of boasting in those words.’

’Theoretically, the road might not fail immediately after a single pass from a hundred-ton truck.’

’But when it came to actual daily use, how long could one expect a road paved with gravel to last?’

At this thought, Feng Shan turned to Old Li with a serious expression. "Old Li, give it to me straight. What’s the actual service life of this road?"

Old Li’s expression immediately turned troubled upon hearing the question.

He furrowed his brow, a flash of hesitation in his eyes. After a long silence, he finally spoke slowly.

"Under normal use, the estimated service life of this road is about five years. But if the traffic volume can be controlled—say, keeping the average daily traffic below 1,000 passenger cars—then its lifespan could be extended."

Hah!

Feng Shan sneered internally. ’What a slick way of putting it.’

’At first, it sounded pretty good. Daily traffic of passenger vehicles... that just means cars.’

’The subtext was clear: don’t let heavy trucks on it.’

Now he finally understood.

No wonder a Tundra highway nearly 200 kilometers long could be built in just two months.

After all this time, it turned out to be just for show!

Feng Shan couldn’t help but purse his lips, feeling more than a little annoyed.

He might not have had to pay for the road out of his own pocket, but once it was completed, it would belong to the Crown Territory.

The thought of this highway only lasting five years just didn’t sit right with him; it felt like a bad deal no matter how he looked at it.

To spend all that manpower and material to build a road, only to have to go through the hassle of rebuilding it a few years later—what a waste of resources and money.

"Feng, what Li said isn’t entirely correct," Sam, who had been focused on driving, suddenly interjected. His eyes remained on the road as he spoke quickly. "Service life is just a theoretical standard. When the Dalton Highway was built, they didn’t actually set a fixed lifespan. In practice, a road requires constant maintenance and repair to ensure it remains passable."

Sam paused, letting a truck that was blaring its horn pass by. He took a moment to glance back at Feng Shan and continued, "The Sawu Highway is essentially the same as the Dalton Highway. As long as it receives proper maintenance, it can last for many, many years. It’s not as simple as just five."

"Old Sa, I’m starting to like you!" Old Li grinned, surprised that Sam would back him up at a time like this.

This sudden declaration gave Sam quite a scare.

His hand jerked, causing the steering wheel to shudder violently and the truck to swerve into the oncoming lane.

In a panic, Sam quickly steadied the steering wheel and swerved the truck back into the correct lane. Breaking out in a cold sweat, he exclaimed, "My God! I’m not into men!"

Sam looked utterly panicked.

It made everyone else in the truck burst out laughing, and the tense atmosphere eased considerably.

Feng Shan shrugged.

He decided there was no point in dwelling on the service life issue and dropped the subject.

The Pickup Truck sped along the new highway as fully loaded trucks roared past them, one after another.

Whenever they passed a truck coming the other way,

its driver would habitually blast the air horn, a piercing warning.

In response, Sam would good-naturedly roll down his window and stick out a hand, making a friendly international gesture as a greeting.

After about twenty kilometers, they suddenly ran into a traffic jam.

Trucks loaded with gravel were parked one after another along the side of the road, their headlights cutting through the gloom.

The drivers were standing beside their vehicles, and despite the biting wind, their spirits for smoking and chatting were not the least bit dampened.

"Alright folks, we’ll have to walk the rest of the way. I’m going to pull off the road first." After checking the rearview mirror and warning the others, Sam steered the Pickup Truck off the roadbed and parked it on a relatively flat, open patch of ground.

The men pushed open their doors and stepped out.

A biting wind instantly assaulted them, making them shiver.

They then began walking forward along the drainage ditch at the edge of the roadbed, heading into the wind and snow.

The snowflakes grew denser, adding a touch of cold desolation to the already barren Tundra highway.

「After about ten minutes of walking.」

A deafening mechanical roar reached their ears.

The brightly lit construction site was like a lighthouse in the darkness, illuminating the polar night sky.

Just then, a voice called out from ahead in heavily accented, awkward English.

"Who are you? This is a construction site! Don’t come any closer!"

Immediately after,

a worker in a reflective vest, holding a light wand, hurried over from the side of the road. He stopped and shouted at them.

"Liu Jie, it’s me!"

Old Li yelled back at the top of his lungs.

His voice carried far in the wind and snow, cutting through the noise and allowing the man to recognize him.

Hearing the familiar voice, the worker in the reflective vest froze for a moment.

He then scrambled down the roadbed and trotted over, the headlamp on his safety helmet bobbing and sweeping its beam across the group.

"Chief Engineer Li, what are you doing here?" the worker asked, his expression puzzled and his tone surprised.

"You’re the safety officer today. I came to check on the construction," Old Li said, shielding his eyes from the direct beam of light with a slight frown. "Move that headlamp, it’s blinding me. Take us to the site, and find us four reflective vests and safety helmets on the way."

"You got it!"

The worker replied, then turned and used his headlamp to light the path forward, guiding the group.

After entering the camp, the group headed toward a work shed.

Inside the shed, a group of workers who had just finished their shift were sitting around, chatting and resting.

The shed was filled with the smell of sweat and tobacco mixed with heated air, a world away from the ice and snow outside.

Seeing strangers enter,

the workers merely glanced up casually before returning to their conversations, apparently used to such occurrences.

Feng Shan walked into the shed and quickly scanned the room.

He saw that the workers were split about half and half between Chinese nationals and foreigners.

The Chinese workers, however, seemed unaccustomed to the harsh environment of the Far North Tundra. Their faces were pale with cold as they huddled tightly around a heater, their bodies pressed so close they might as well have been hugging it.

The foreign workers, in contrast, seemed perfectly normal, leisurely chatting and eating sandwiches.

They looked completely unaffected by the cold.

"Old Li, what are the cold-weather precautions for the workers? The climate in the Far North Tundra is a whole different beast from northern China."

Feng Shan reminded him, his brow furrowed with concern.

He didn’t want any workers to face danger, let alone lose their lives, just for the sake of building a road.

After all, their safety was the most important thing.

Old Li took the reflective vests and helmets, handing them out as he spoke seriously.

"Don’t worry, we’ve made thorough arrangements for the crew’s protection against the cold. Everyone wears three layers of thermal clothing and is equipped with electric-heated gloves and insulated boots. Plus, everyone is required to take a break in a heated room to rest and eat every two hours. Our protective measures are solid."

Sam took a reflective vest, put it on, and carefully adjusted his helmet before chiming in.

"That’s right. We also have an anemometer and a thermometer set up in camp, and they’re linked to the Alaska weather station. If the wind exceeds Level 10 or visibility drops below fifty meters, we immediately halt all operations. All personnel and equipment are promptly moved back to camp. Safety is absolutely guaranteed on that front."

"That’s good. Safety first."

Hearing all this,

Feng Shan finally nodded, relieved. He put on his vest and safety helmet.

He was satisfied with the safety arrangements made by Dahua Company.

Ensuring the safety of the personnel was the only way for the construction project to proceed smoothly.

...