A little while ago they got the road in dug up (3,5,3)

I believe the answer is:

the other day

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'a little while ago' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'they got the road in dug up' is the wordplay.
'got' is an insertion indicator.
'road' becomes 'rd' (abbreviation).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'dug up' becomes 'oa' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'the'+'rd'='therd'
'therd' going within 'oa' is 'otherda'.
'they' going around 'otherda' is 'THE OTHER DAY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for the other day that I've seen before include "Quite recently" , "Not long ago" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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