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| With much of the heaviest lifting behind us, it is now time to start assembly; a delivery from Lakecraft just after the Thanksgiving weekend has kept the crew very busy (Above: Jason installing the steel outer stoplog channels that will receive the aluminum logs that ultimately allow us to set and change the marsh's water elevation) |
Between a Thanksgiving holiday weekend and some seasonably sloppy weather (both rain and dustings of snow), it would be easy for our contractors to get bogged down at this stage in the project. But progress has most certainly continued over this last week and a half. Despite heavy boots and raw cold, morale seems to continue to ride high as the project clips along. There's still plenty to do, but it now feels like we all see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Since the floor was poured, the crew has been concentrating on receiving and installing various components of the actual water management infrastructure. The series of photos below depicts several of these components in various stages of installation.
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| A 36" "screw gate" being bolted to a steel mounting plate that will then be bolted to the precast concrete |
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| A debris and carp screen mounted on the marsh side of the precast with the 36" screw gate mounted to the interior of the "pump pit" |
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| That same 36" screw gate as seen from within the pump pit (carp/debris screen frame visible at top of image on other side of precast concrete) |
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| A second series of carp/debris screen, precast, and then screw gate photographed from the bay side shows one side of the precast pump pit nearly completed; work has continued on the 24" side (to the left of the 36" above) |
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| A current view from the pump pit looking back toward the bay; all of the cap welding that creates the top of each wall is now complete |
The snow-covered area with the vertical pins (above) depicts the 12'-wide, 12" deep area that will receive a final concrete pour . . . if all goes well, later this week. This area will serve as our dike crossing and will be another milestone for the project.
I left the site yesterday with the crew working on two excavators. One was moving clay while the other was compacting it up against the sheet pile walls. They are working toward a finished grade, and we are seeing what was just a drawing on paper three months ago come to life at the site. The real fun will come when we can reconnect the waterways and let the life from each intermingle. Won't be long now!