Saturday, September 27, 2014

Year 2, Day 333: 27 September 2014: Finishing the Retaining Wall

On Friday morning, the wooden forms were removed from the new section of wall.


And here is the finished wall, photographed on Saturday evening. 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Year 2, Day 329: 23 September 2014: The Return of the Cement Truck

It's been a while since there's been this much action at the substation. The wooden forms were all in place first thing this morning, and the concrete truck soon arrived to pour the new upper section of the wall at the north end of the site. 











Thursday, September 18, 2014

Year 2, Day 324: 18 September 2014: Another Brick in the Wall


These two gentlemen are involved in extending the concrete wall at the corner of Farwell and Glenwood, and they took a few minutes to explain to me what they are doing. The wooden forms give an indication of how high the finished wall will be. They told me that there will be some plants added to the small triangle of ground at the top of the wall. I put in my request for a peach tree, but i doubt that there will be anything quite so elaborate as that. Thanks for posing, guys! 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Year 2, Day 315: 9 September 2014: Back to the Substation

I don't know if it is a form of Stockholm Syndrome, but over the course of twenty months of occasionally floor-shakingly noisy construction right outside my window, i grew to love the substation project. And now that the major construction is done and there is rarely any discernible activity on the site, i find myself missing it. I tried to generate some interest in the water-main replacement work on Farwell, but honestly, i just want that job to be done as quickly as possible so we can all go back to parking our cars and taking our bubble-baths in peace and quiet. I simply can't generate the same kind of interest in that job as i did to the substation. So, i was delighted today to see a handful of workers back on the job today, working on the small gravel slope at the north end of the substation.  At the end of the day, it looked like they were still in the middle of doing whatever they are doing, so i hope to have more to report in the coming days. 





Thursday, September 4, 2014

Year 2, Day 310: 4 September 2014; New Chapter: Replacing the Water Mains on Farwell Ave. (Week 2 Continues)

The water main work continues moving steadily eastward. I happened upon this interesting scene this morning while walking the dog. As you can imagine, this huge, heavy, and ungainly piece of concrete (I think it's called a catch basin, but am not 100% sure) made very slow progress as it was transported east on Farwell. I saw it approaching from Ashland, and it travelled like this to about Lakewood.






Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Year 2, Day 308: 2 September 2014; New Chapter: Replacing the Water Mains on Farwell Ave. (Week 2 Begins)


A small manlift arrived at the substation site today, so apparently a little fine-tuning is still going on.
But the bigger story of the moment continues to be the water main replacement work on Farwell. Regrettably, i was not on the spot early this morning, but was told by a reliable source that the existing water main was hit and briefly did its best impersonation of Buckingham Fountain. Nevertheless, the work is proceeding very quickly and it looks like the major work (aside from repaving) has been completed between Wayne and Glenwood. 
Meanwhile, another of my reliable sources encountered someone from AT&T spray-painting markings on the roadway on the section of Glenwood east of the L tracks between Pratt and Farwell. When asked, the man explained that AT&T will be digging up the street for some reason or other. Yay to infrastructure upgrades; boo to additional headaches for car owners.