Now that all of the big girders for spanning the Hoquarton have arrived and are stacked alongside the roadway, the next gigantic arrival will be an enormous crane pulling into town this weekend to be on hand for setting the large pre-cast support caps during the negative tides Monday and Tuesday of next week.
The girders themselves are anticipated to be set the week following, along with the 800 pound bridge bearings that were just delivered to the site. The bridge will begin to shape over the next month as all of these pieces are assembled.
Also in March, there will be fresh activity popping up at the far eastern end of the project around Goodspeed Park as foundations and trenching for electrical along the new bicycle/pedestrian trail gets underway. This will be coupled with next week’s forming of the interior bays and overhang on the pedestrian walkway over the Port’s Highway 6 railroad bridge.
Eventually this pathway system will tie back to the Hoquarton Landing park area by the 101 bridge. The pathway, using a traffic island, will cross the highway to the Sue H. Elmore Park, which will be renovated this summer. From there, the City’s long-range plans are to continue the path westward using a ‘boardwalk’ system that brings pedestrians through the City’s historic birthplace to additional kayak launch points and then ties into a walking circuit around the Adventist Health complex.
As to other walk areas, the sidewalk pattern for the downtown has been perfected and approved for the trial segment by the side of Homelife Furniture. The paver slab pour that accompanies it is tentatively scheduled for next week. Assuming all goes well, this should enable the balance of the sidewalk construction to proceed forthwith from this point on.
However, after all the delays and with the original projection of one month per blockface, there are scheduling concerns about wrapping up all the sidewalk work by Memorial Day. The Chamber and City are pressing for a more aggressive schedule that will meet that original target. We will keep you posted.