Upgrading 32 miles of M4 to a smart (?) motorway has taken 4 years - simplistically a few signs and road markings on the hard shoulder. All the benefits of modern construction activity, absent in Edwards time are at the disposal of contractors.

The road improvements are not only daft, but take an inordinately long time to complete.

I know, it's incredible how long it takes. They did the M4 between the M5 and M32 a decade ago and that took about 4 years. I did a swift calculation and I reckon it could have been done in 18 months.

The council widened a junction near me and put in traffic lights. It needed doing but really shouldn't have taken more than a month. It took over a year! Don't get me started on the motorway bridges Highways England are doing. Over two years on one and I've only once seen anyone there let alone working.

Over 19 years between 1276 and 1295 Edward the first had castles built in Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech complete with towns and town walls.

He managed all this without the benefit of the internal combustion engine, electricity, hydraulics etc - although he probably had ready access to forced labour.

Upgrading 32 miles of M4 to a smart (?) motorway has taken 4 years - simplistically a few signs and road markings on the hard shoulder. All the benefits of modern construction activity, absent in Edwards time are at the disposal of contractors.

The road improvements are not only daft, but take an inordinately long time to complete.

You forgot to take into account the British Construction Industry's penchant for frequent tea breaks and standing around chatting when actually being on site (how often are motorway works completely devoid of workers/activity even during the supposed 'working period'?).

Thinking ahead and properly designing / planning a [insert project here] is also low on the priority list. Overspending budgets, doing a poor quality job that doesn't really work and blaming everyone else is something they are very good at.

Upgrading 32 miles of M4 to a smart (?) motorway has taken 4 years - simplistically a few signs and road markings on the hard shoulder.

If you look at what they're actually doing there's a lot more to it than you suggest.

The M1 between Milton Keynes and Northampton is being similarly upgraded. Although they've avoided having to purchase new land the carriageway is being widened to a degree. A great deal of work has been done on embankments to dig them out and stabilise. There's also a lot of groundwork involved in constructing and stabilising the emergency refuges.

The signage requires infrastructure including overhead gantries, wiring, data provision etc as do the CCTV cameras. Some sections have what looks like extensive infra red floodlighting.

IIRC some parts of the eastern section of the M4 were originally built as two lanes widened to three in the seventies. Bridges in these areas had insufficient span for all lane running and required replacement.

And all of this while, for the most part, keeping the road running.