Progress in the Park

Working on the path through the park

A few months ago, I wrote about the park down the street, and how the city is rehabilitating it. (See here.) A month or so later, they had made some progress, and I wrote about it again. (See here.) Since then, the work has continued.

outlining where the new sidewalks would go

Some days as we walked to school, we were met with the loud cacophony of jackhammers breaking up the concrete sidewalks. Sometimes we got to see giant excavators digging up huge chunks of concrete or asphalt. bulldozers would push them into piles and then load them into trucks with giant open bins on the back to haul the refuse to a dump somewhere. New paths would be outlined with thin boards held in place by metal and wood stakes.

Then came the excitement of concrete mixers and towering concrete pumps, pouring new sidewalks and courtyards. After the concrete was poured, workers would come, sometimes on hands and knees smoothing the poured concrete with trowels, and other times on their feet with their trowels attached to long poles. After the concrete had dried, A man used a concrete cutter (with a noise that sounded like a hundred nails scraping a chalkboard, amplified by a microphone with the volume cranked up to full volume) to cut lines into the smooth plane.

The concrete cutter

In the grassy fields, Giant trench cutters as well as shovels were used to dig long trenches in geometric patterns across the lawns, as well as along the borders of the new sidewalks. PVC pipes were laid in the trenches and fitted to sprinkler heads and green plastic covered control panels, and then the the trenches were filled in again, leaving straight lines of bare dirt across the grass.

One day a couple weeks ago, a new pavilion appeared, with men swarming over the top, placing green panels to form the roof.

The last couple days it hasn't been pleasant to walk past the park. Not only is the port-o-potty next to the office ripe to be emptied, but they've also received a shipment of composted manure which spreads its powerful odor on the wind and makes me want to hold my breath as I hurry past.

Yesterday, Josh and Peter had choir club after school, and as we came home by the park in the late afternoon, a bunch of the workers stood near the sidewalk talking. Josh has been entranced by a machine that appeared a couple days ago, and he has nicknamed it, "the Claw." It just happened that "the Claw" was parked on the street very near where the workers were gathered. We paused on our trek home to ask what kind of machine it was, and the foreman told us that it was a mini excavator. He then asked the boys if they would like to sit in it. The boys said, "yes!" and before long, they were both in the small compartment totally entranced as the foreman told them what the different levers and pedals do. After a few minutes of exploration and discovery, the boys reluctantly jumped out and we continued on our way home.

I overheard one of the workers tell someone that the park should be finished by the end of May. I look forward to seeing the final result. Meanwhile, it has been fun to watch the big machines in action, and observe the small improvements from day to day.