I am most definitely a fan of a hole in the ground in older locales.
It’s especially fun when street work is being done in the older parts of the City, and the old streetcar rail lines appear after sixty plus years of concealment. Heck, my wife and I live down the alley from the old Grand line turnaround loop behind Meramec Ave. The tracks are still there in the alley, and you can see the cracks in the road where they continue on underneath the asphalt (thank you alderman ? for paving the brick street, and thus causing faster speeds on our street; morons). One can discern these cracks in other parts of the City, too. Anywho…Having also done some excavating myself, for garage demo and a retaining wall and fence, I came across some interesting finds: sherds of china, a doll’s head (about 4cm in length), what I am fairly certain is slag from a foundry, cinders from spent coal, small glass (apothecary?) bottles and parts of glass containers, and several massively corroded iron pieces, one of which possibly was the ‘flap’ valve in a toilet tank. I think I also found where the offal from the rubble-stone foundation was located: smack dab in the middle of our backyard, as there were hundreds of fist-sized and smaller chunks of limestone lurking about a foot below grade, in a roughly 3mx3m area. (Dig, clink! dig, clink! dig, clink!) The two holes I dug out for the gangway gateposts yielded odd pieces of brick, more china/crockery, and something really interesting: glass slag, little fist-sized chunks of glass ‘clinkers’. Rather pretty, really. There were a few glass manufacturers in the area, Chrystal City being the most notable of these, but I didn’t think there were any in the City, so I’ve been wondering how the hell these chunks got into the ground near my foundation. Fill, I suppose, to be sure, but from whence did it come?
Laclede has been on Louisiana Ave. near Chippewa, trenching near the curb for new main lines, and the brick underneath the asphalt again sees the light of day.
Personally, I love more the natural layers found, such as one sees traveling the highways. (yes, just another example of man tearing up the world).
The bricks from years ago are wonderful…though not cobblestones. Isn’t it ironic that as we advance (wagons to trolleys to cars and now back to trolleys, dirt path to brick road to cement to asphalt and now back to brink), we revert back to the proven ways. Look at the “green” alleys going in off South Grand as an example.
Considering that it has taken the contractor a year to get to this point, it wouldn’t be any wonder if another neighbor hood said ‘no’ to renewed/restored alleys. The City may want to take a cue from the Dutch, who seem to make some interesting brick paver laying machines:
there have been sinkholes and lateral issues that has caused some delays. From what I hear, they wanted to repair the laterals and such before laying the new alley so they didn’t have to come back in a year or two. There’s also a learning curve since this hasn’t been done before.
Yeah, I can imagine how much damage a broken clay lateral could do if left in disrepair. Having seen a couple of alleys with such issues (including the alley behind Meramec of which I spoke), I’m having a bit of a SMH moment. And as you say, it’s strange to see permeable brick paving coming back to this country. It couldn’t have come at a better time, what with the dwindling supplies of oil and the rising costs associated with that.
Since I take Gustine quite a lot, I’m looking forward to seeing the completed work. (as are the residents, I’m sure)
I’m more fascinated by the fact that, somehow, tearing up a street and then re-pouring it afterwards every time a utility needs service must be more economical than using vaults or tunnels.
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I am most definitely a fan of a hole in the ground in older locales.
It’s especially fun when street work is being done in the older parts of the City, and the old streetcar rail lines appear after sixty plus years of concealment. Heck, my wife and I live down the alley from the old Grand line turnaround loop behind Meramec Ave. The tracks are still there in the alley, and you can see the cracks in the road where they continue on underneath the asphalt (thank you alderman ? for paving the brick street, and thus causing faster speeds on our street; morons). One can discern these cracks in other parts of the City, too. Anywho…Having also done some excavating myself, for garage demo and a retaining wall and fence, I came across some interesting finds: sherds of china, a doll’s head (about 4cm in length), what I am fairly certain is slag from a foundry, cinders from spent coal, small glass (apothecary?) bottles and parts of glass containers, and several massively corroded iron pieces, one of which possibly was the ‘flap’ valve in a toilet tank. I think I also found where the offal from the rubble-stone foundation was located: smack dab in the middle of our backyard, as there were hundreds of fist-sized and smaller chunks of limestone lurking about a foot below grade, in a roughly 3mx3m area. (Dig, clink! dig, clink! dig, clink!) The two holes I dug out for the gangway gateposts yielded odd pieces of brick, more china/crockery, and something really interesting: glass slag, little fist-sized chunks of glass ‘clinkers’. Rather pretty, really. There were a few glass manufacturers in the area, Chrystal City being the most notable of these, but I didn’t think there were any in the City, so I’ve been wondering how the hell these chunks got into the ground near my foundation. Fill, I suppose, to be sure, but from whence did it come?
Laclede has been on Louisiana Ave. near Chippewa, trenching near the curb for new main lines, and the brick underneath the asphalt again sees the light of day.
Personally, I love more the natural layers found, such as one sees traveling the highways. (yes, just another example of man tearing up the world).
The bricks from years ago are wonderful…though not cobblestones. Isn’t it ironic that as we advance (wagons to trolleys to cars and now back to trolleys, dirt path to brick road to cement to asphalt and now back to brink), we revert back to the proven ways. Look at the “green” alleys going in off South Grand as an example.
Considering that it has taken the contractor a year to get to this point, it wouldn’t be any wonder if another neighbor hood said ‘no’ to renewed/restored alleys. The City may want to take a cue from the Dutch, who seem to make some interesting brick paver laying machines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAXcqO_zJgk
And this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxholiqUCQQ
And this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxxg0aGdcGM
there have been sinkholes and lateral issues that has caused some delays. From what I hear, they wanted to repair the laterals and such before laying the new alley so they didn’t have to come back in a year or two. There’s also a learning curve since this hasn’t been done before.
Yeah, I can imagine how much damage a broken clay lateral could do if left in disrepair. Having seen a couple of alleys with such issues (including the alley behind Meramec of which I spoke), I’m having a bit of a SMH moment. And as you say, it’s strange to see permeable brick paving coming back to this country. It couldn’t have come at a better time, what with the dwindling supplies of oil and the rising costs associated with that.
Since I take Gustine quite a lot, I’m looking forward to seeing the completed work. (as are the residents, I’m sure)
I’m more fascinated by the fact that, somehow, tearing up a street and then re-pouring it afterwards every time a utility needs service must be more economical than using vaults or tunnels.
Some (denser) cities have these tunnels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_tunnel