Construction Simulator | Ep. 46 – All This Work for an Overpriced Sandwich and a Toilet
After countless hours of heavy machinery, concrete, planning, and questionable engineering decisions, our service area project continues. All this effort so future travellers can enjoy the privilege of paying far too much for a sandwich before discovering there’s a queue for the toilet.
After a couple of weeks away from Construction Simulator while Monday nights wandered into some other simulator games, we were finally back at the service station. There was plenty waiting for us: a huge concrete slab to finish, steelwork to place, more concrete to fight with and, as it turned out, an entire collection of prefabricated wall sections sitting halfway across the map.
🏗️ About the Game
Construction Simulator puts us in charge of more than 70 machines across two large maps, with jobs ranging from digging foundations and pouring concrete to hauling materials and lifting structural components into place.
A big part of the appeal for me is actually doing the work rather than skipping past it. If we need concrete or building materials, we drive out, collect them and bring them back ourselves. The automatic options might be quicker, but otherwise you are just cheating yourself out of the game.
🚧 Where We Are in the Journey
This episode continues the service station, or rest stop as the game calls it, which has already been one of the longer construction jobs in the series. We previously spent a considerable amount of time excavating the basement and placing the concrete sections needed down there.
The current stage is the main building above it. We had already started pouring the large concrete slab that sits around the perimeter of the basement, so this stream began with finishing that foundation before moving into the structure itself. Even after everything we managed here, we ended the night at around 46% completion, so there is clearly still a lot of this build left.
🔥 What Happens in This Episode
After a couple of weeks away from Construction Simulator while Monday nights wandered into a few other simulator games, we were finally back at the service station project. We picked up almost exactly where we had left it, with the main building still waiting for its enormous concrete base to be finished around the perimeter of the basement we spent so long digging out in earlier episodes. That basement already consumed plenty of concrete slabs of its own, so naturally the game decided what we really needed was even more concrete.
A few technical gremlins tried to interfere before we properly got going. There had already been microphone trouble, the game itself seemed to be doing some strange visual flickering, and at one point the audio disappeared completely until chat pointed out that I had apparently gone quiet. Once everything returned, there was only one sensible explanation available: #blameGary.
The first proper job of the evening was finishing that huge ground-floor slab. We had already made a start previously, but completing it meant five separate trips back and forth to collect concrete. As always, we ignored the automatic-fill option. If we need concrete, steel or anything else in Construction Simulator, we are driving out there, collecting it and bringing it back ourselves. Otherwise, you are just cheating yourself out of half the game.
That meant loading the mixer, driving back to the service station, deploying the cursed concrete pump and slowly working our way around the slab. The progress percentage crept upwards with every load, but the final sections were predictably awkward. We reached the point where there was barely anything left to pour, yet the remaining patch sat just far enough away that the entire machine had to be packed up, moved and deployed again for what felt like a ridiculous amount of effort.
The concrete pump was already something of a celebrity before the night began, and it did nothing to improve its reputation here. Chat had greeted it with “Curse you concrete pump,” and as the evening went on it became increasingly difficult to argue with that assessment. Somewhere along the way the concrete itself became “custard,” leaving me trying to encourage the machine with “Come on, Custard. Get pumping,” which made complete sense by the standards of this construction site.
Once the base was finally poured, we could move onto something that did not involve concrete for at least several minutes. The next stage brought in twenty steel beams, along with more structural pieces that needed placing around the site. The crane came out, the beams gradually went into position, and for a brief moment it looked as though we might be entering a straightforward part of the build.
Naturally, that did not last.
Once the steelwork was in place, more concrete columns appeared in the middle of the structure and the pump had to return. This became another exercise in finding exactly the right place to park a very large vehicle inside a rapidly filling construction site. Park too close and the arm caught on the structure. Park too far away and the hose would not reach. At one point the machine was positioned so badly that the end would not deploy properly at all, so there was nothing for it but to reset the vehicle and try again.
Even after repositioning, the final columns fought back. We reached 93% completion on one stage and were left searching for the one angle that would get concrete into the last awkward section. “Can I reach that?” was regularly followed by the answer, “Of course I can’t,” which became a fairly accurate description of the whole operation.
Chat, meanwhile, was keeping itself entertained while the construction machinery refused to cooperate. #blameGary remained the accepted explanation for most technical difficulties, missed turns and general misfortune. A discussion about Gary’s singing eventually produced the phrase “the delirium of sunrise,” which was immediately preserved with reminder commands because apparently that is now something that may need turning into a song in the future. Gary insisted his singing was good. The rest of us appeared less convinced.
With the columns finally filled, the game revealed the next part of the job: prefabricated wall sections. I had not realised these were coming at all, and there were around twenty of them needed for the next phase of the building. Unfortunately, they were not waiting conveniently beside the construction site. They had to be collected from a completely separate location halfway across the map.
We headed over to investigate how they were supplied and discovered that the wall sections came packaged into large crates. Each crate contained four prefab sections, and our trailer could carry two crates at a time. We brought the first batch back to the service station, got the crane involved and moved those sections onto the build area.
That worked, but it also made something else obvious: if we continued unloading and placing every batch as soon as we returned, the evening was going to disappear very quickly. Instead, we decided it would make more sense to turn the whole thing into one large transport job. Get everything onto the site first, then deal with unpacking and placing the walls together afterwards.
So the second half of the stream became a freight operation.
We spent run after run travelling between the supplier and the service station with two crates on the trailer each time. There were wrong roads, missed turns, some slightly questionable manoeuvres and the occasional reminder that Construction Simulator physics does not always behave like physics anywhere else. Chat was watching the driving closely enough to make sure none of the navigational mistakes went unnoticed.
The journeys also gave us plenty of time for the usual stream conversations to wander in every possible direction. Star Wars, old television programmes, future streams, custard cream spread, peanut butter apparently being excellent rat bait, tea, Discord plans and a real-life story about an extremely inconsiderate driver at a roundabout all managed to appear while the prefab walls slowly migrated across the map.
Eventually, a new problem became obvious. We had succeeded in bringing most of the prefab crates back, but there simply was not enough clear space left on the site to drop everything neatly. One trailer still had two lots of wall sections sitting on it, while our other trailer was already carrying other construction materials, including steel beams, wooden beams and assorted pieces that would be needed later in the build.
Fortunately, there was enough room on the pad to clear those materials off first. The crane came out again and we started unloading and organising everything rather than leaving the whole construction site buried underneath one enormous pile. It probably would have been quicker simply to unpack some of the wall crates immediately, but by that point we had committed to the plan. Or, as I may have suggested, perhaps we should simply be committed.
Clearing that trailer gave us the space we needed for the final collection. We hooked everything back up, drove all the way down to the supplier again, picked up the last two crates and returned to the service station. Rather than trying to squeeze those onto the already crowded pad, we parked the loaded trailer beside the site ready for next time.
By the end of the evening, everything we currently need appears to be on location. Any additional concrete should be easy enough to collect because the supply point is only just down the road, but the major materials are now waiting beside the build instead of scattered across the map.
There was still time for one final bit of chat chaos before we finished. A Hunger Games command pulled viewers into the automated game, and somehow I emerged as the winner. Chat immediately decided the entire thing was rigged. I would like to make it absolutely clear that these accusations remain completely unproven.
We finished the night with the service station sitting at around 46% completion, which is impressive until you look at everything already built and realise we are still not even halfway through the contract. The prefab wall crates are ready to unpack, the big crane will be needed to start placing the sections properly, and there still appear to be more concrete stages waiting for us. We also uncovered what looks like a substantial collection of corrugated roof sections, along with other materials that suggest the upper part of the structure is going to keep us busy for quite some time.
We deliberately avoided digging too deeply into the later construction stages before ending the stream. We could have checked exactly where the project is going next, but where would be the fun in that? The surprise can wait until we return, unpack those enormous crates and discover what fresh logistical problem the service station has prepared for us.
With the site stocked and the next phase ready to begin, we called it there and sent the raid over to ShimCraft. Next time, the walls should finally start going up—assuming the crane can reach them.
🎬 Watch the Episode
If you want to see all five concrete runs, the fight with the pump, the steelwork and the prefab delivery marathon for yourself, you can watch the full episode on YouTube.
You can also find more videos on Dr Ravenholm on YouTube and follow the rest of the series through the Construction Simulator playlist. If you enjoy the episode, please leave a like, tell me what you thought in the comments and subscribe so you do not miss the next part of the build.
🔴 Join the Adventure Live
The videos show you what survived the edit, but the livestream is where you get the full experience: missed turns, machinery refusing to cooperate, chat finding somebody to blame and the occasional discussion that somehow drifts from construction equipment to custard cream spread.
Come and join us live on Twitch or YouTube. You never quite know what the next stream will produce, and once the prefab walls start moving, I am sure chat will have opinions.
🌐 Community & Links
The stream may end, but there are plenty of places to keep up with what we are doing, continue the conversation and find everything else connected to the channel.
Live — Come along when the machines start moving again:
Twitch | YouTube
Community — Keep the conversation going between streams:
Discord
Socials — Follow the assorted updates, clips and other things happening away from the construction site:
TikTok | Bluesky | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X
Music — If “the delirium of sunrise” ever becomes a real song, these are probably the places it will eventually appear:
Spotify | Apple Music
Support — If you would like to support the streams and everything around them:
Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs
More — For the other projects, services and writing beyond the channel:
Business Centre | Download the Brochure | About Me | Blog
🏢 46% Done and the Walls Are Still in Crates
We ended in a good position, even if the percentage suggests this service station still has plenty more planned for us. The materials are on site, the prefab walls are ready to unpack and the big crane should finally start putting the building together next time.
Whether we get walls, roof sections or simply another demand for concrete remains to be seen. For now, the cursed pump can have a rest.
— Dr Ravenholm
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