All of the action for now is at the south end of the lake. Our first image is below the dam, roughly the center point where that previously noted culvert lies and marks the end of paving work. In this case, it’s now quite literally. This struck me as odd, but the paving crew went down to their endpoint and worked their way back up the hill to the water tower.
This is the paving crew in action, waiting another load of asphalt, farther around the dam from the first shot. They are using a buffer machine to receive the asphalt and dump it in a stead stream into the paver. This way the dump truck drivers don’t have to sweat the tricky tandem driving with the paver on a curvy path that is softer than normal paving operations.
A few days later the same crew had topped the rise on the west wing of the dam. That water tower marks the location of a huge collection of buildings that aren’t visible over the crest of the ridge. Down below the workers were prepping for the curb crew, laying steel reinforcement rods in the trench and setting up the guides for the concrete pouring machine. That will start next week.
The other center of activity is on the eastern side of the dam where the old road bed for Westminster Road is basically the bikeway path. Where that roadbed intersects with the southern end of the Draper Drive loop, the clearing crew is following the survey stakes. Instead of coming out the gate, they are cutting across the edge through the trees to avoid complicating the crossing with the intersection. This will zig-zag around it to one side. There’s a digger with a bite-bucket hidden in the brush there on the right.
Looking back the way this clearing crew have come, we see the old Westminster road bed. Farther out in the distance, you can see where the clearing line cuts through the woods because some portion of Westminster Road is still in use for motor traffic access to a boat dock.
About a mile in that same direction we can see the clearing path where it crosses SE 134th Street. This is just the initial clearing work. Next is a lot of dirt work to change the elevations and smooth out the path before actual landscaping starts.
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Just a passing note on the bike: The windfall remains up in the air, but the bike needs fixing right now. Without the extra money, I opted for less expensive upgrade parts and ordered them. But their arrival is still two weeks away, so I won’t be riding nearly as much in the meantime because the shifting is really bad. Besides, the weatherman projects a lot of rain in the next week or two. Rain pretty much stops the bikeway work, and it should bring some entertaining washouts on parts they’ve left unprotected.
Nice photos!