Asphalt was laid yesterday! Lines are being painted today! Hip Hip! Hooray!
The Square is looking shiny and new, just in time for the Grand Opening at 11 am on July 4th!
Update: The south half is now open! We can drive and park in front of our building again! No more hauling wedding cakes 2 blocks to load into a car!
Two big trees were planted today! Loving the green additions!
The concrete for the sidewalk around the corner was poured in the morning. The crew moved onto our sidewalks in the afternoon.
Watching the cement trucks maneuver around each other, the barrels, and the other heavy equipment is always a bit entertaining. A construction ballet!!
Each guy on the team had a very specific role and job. It was interesting watching the chunky cement being made perfectly smooth.
Nearly complete sidewalks! It is after 8 pm now, and the guys are still working, sawing in the expansion gaps. So happy to have these beautiful, wide sidewalks!
The North half of the Square is open to traffic! It looks lovely! People can drive and park near businesses! Hooray!
Open!
The South half… Not so much.
Closed.
Don’t get me wrong. It is great to see progress being made. The ugly, overbearing electrical poles were taken out just today, and it certainly does make a difference.
Cutting the last of the wires...
Voila! Can't even tell they were ever there!
But I long for sidewalks. Real, gravel-free sidewalks. Nice wide sidewalks that make our shop accessible. We’ve been told sidewalks will be poured next week. I hope, I hope, I hope!
In the last week, and especially in the last few days, the progress on the north half of the Square has really made some significant strides! This photo was taken Monday morning, as they were starting to fill in the concrete pad of the fountain:
As you can see, trees have been planted (and not just little twigs – nicely developed ones!), but there is still quite a ways to go. But today, with the blacktop being laid and the bollards in place, it all of a sudden looks near completion!
The south half, however, is still a giant sandlot. The crew has been doing A LOT underground – cables, electrical, irrigation, etc. Every day it seems there is a new hole being dug.
And I apologize for the lack of updates. We have a mourning dove nest right next to the ladder to our roof, and I feel bad for creepin’ out the mama dove. Today, though, she didn’t fly away from the nest – either the eggs are REALLY close to hatching, or they already have.
Despite Mother Nature’s fierce refusal to let go of winter, the cement trucks have continued to roll into the Square this week. And finally, a beautiful day for the guys to spring forward!
Sidewalks are being poured and cured this week! We just got an official update, and work will continue and finish up on the north half for the next two weeks or so, and then everything with shift our way!
Last week Tuesday we got up and were moving around a bit, and I started watching some of the construction in our front yard. A good size hole was in the process of being dug, in order to do something or another with the sewer pipes. And then all of a sudden one of the guys started waving his arms and running around. And water started bubbling and rushing into the hole. And we heard a “woosh” noise from our pipes. Yep. Showers just came off the morning schedule.
oops.
The guys quickly found the water main shutoff, but not until the water came pretty near the top of the hole. Within minutes the city water department arrived and the workers quickly fixed the pipe and work was able to commence. It seemed like the kind of repair that would take half a day, but within an hour and a half, we had water pressure again and were able to go about our happy, clean lives.
the new road is starting to take shape!
And today’s bright sun and warm temperatures are near perfect for the guys to start churning out the cement and laying in the new curbs on the north end!
Hooray for sun! And progress!
It really is pretty cool to see how fast something like this can take place!
Today some utility and water work is taking place, so there are new holes being dug and dirt being moved around. While we have had relatively easy access to our parking lot, Main Street, and Second Street, today’s work definitely shuts that down. The crews are hoping to be done by the end of the day, with some minor closings tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes – they have been pretty accurate with their time estimations to this point.
While the South half of the Square was demolished two weeks ago, the crews packed down the dirt and gave us back a temporary parking lot while work moved to the North half. The demolition phase is now complete, and the crews are immediately starting to work on new sewers and such on the North half. Once the North half of the Square is completed, work will return to the South half to finish the project, probably next month.
