Dave, I need to thank you for posting these notices. As an EE with an interest in transit, I find these fascinating. Most people don't care about what it take to operate mass transit so these provide insight into the infrastructure required to move large quantities of people safely. And to remember nost of this system was installed more than a hundred years.
This weekend, we’re going to begin packing up and restoring a section of the street and sidewalk on the Manhattan side of the job. We’ll have a full schedule soon of what you’ll see and when, and what’s to come on the Brooklyn side, too. In the meantime, we wanted to know: what does “street restoration” actually mean? In general, it’s “leave the neighborhood better than you found it.” We talked with our construction management (CM) team to get the specifics.
L Project Weekly: Team, jobs like this mean that we’re temporary neighbors in a community. When it’s done, of course, we’ll leave behind a brand new, fully accessible subway station. But what about everything we tore up?
CM: Sure, we have a very comprehensive plan for street restoration. The basic rule is to restore everything, leave no footprint.
LPW: People restore old houses and paintings. What does it mean to restore a street?
CM: We mean the street, the sidewalk paving, the trees, everything. The biggest task is rebuilding the street itself. We’ll be doing that work ourselves, following very specific rules from the city DOT.
LPW: What’s involved?
CM: It's a multi-step process. First, we dump in backfill, then we compress it with a heavy vibrating roller and tamping machines. Then we pour a base course of concrete.
LPW: Then comes asphalt, right?
CM: Yes, that’s called the ‘wearing course.’ A big asphalt spreader moves down the street slowly with crews following, raking the asphalt even. We do one pass down
one side of the street and back up the other. We need to minimize traffic disruptions, and so we’re required to do most of the work at night.LPW: We’ve seen those asphalt machines working at night. It’s kind of fascinating to watch. What about the sidewalks, we’re pouring concrete there, right?
CM: That's partially right. It's actually an accessibility issue. We are pouring concrete around the new elevators and on sidewalk ramps for ADA-compliant accessibility. Originally, the sidewalks along the worksite were what’s called Belgian block. You see it a lot around New York City. For proper restoration, we actually removed all those blocks and saved them at the beginning of the job. We’ll have a team of masons who lay down a bed of sand, then set the stones. It’s really a craft, the same way it was done in the nineteenth century.
LPW: We have some great trivia on that below for our readers. But to finish up, we also had to pull out a few trees, the ones directly on top of the areas where we're working. We’re replanting trees, right?
CM: We were able to protect most of the trees, but we did have to take out a few. We’ll be putting back more trees than we took out. I can give you our final shopping list later, but I know there are a few different kinds.
LPW: Great. We know you still have a lot of work to do. We’ll get back to you later about those trees, knock on wood!
Very interesting. Going back to US Navy sound powered telephone system. That way can always communicate. Very good idea !
fiber) 3. Sound power telephone system conduit (just under the rack)
Hello. We're still drying off from the wet weather this week (thanks for sticking with us as we dealt with it). But you know what we DIDN'T have to dry off? The L tunnel. That's because a little thing called sump pumps did the work automatically—with capacity for 2,750 gallons drained per minute once the new ones are installed. More below on how we prevent these soggy situations. Plus: Bedford Av stair openings and closings to watch for, what's a "snake tray," and plan your travel now for Independence Day. Happy first official weekend of summer!
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