THE Road Widening - A Continuing Saga

Yvonne G

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The rebar crew knocked off early today, so I'm thinking this portion of the work is finished. Probably cement on Monday!

What it looks like now:

road widening 7-1-22.jpg

Look at my saguaro up on the hill. That's a 6' fence. My husband brought that plant home to me from one of his motorcycle trips. He stopped at a corner stand in the Mojave desert. I don't remember if it was a packet of seeds or a little plant in a 1" pot. But I've grown it for the past 50 years or so. I'm hoping to see "arms" before I pass this mortal plain.
 
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Blackdog1714

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The rebar crew knocked off early today, so I'm thinking this portion of the work is finished. Probably cement on Monday!

What it looks like now:

View attachment 346718

Look at my saguaro up on the hill. That's a 6' fence. My husband brought that plant home to me from one of his motorcycle trips. He stopped at a corner stand in the Mojave desert. I don't remember if it was a packet of seeds or a little plant in a 1" pot. But I've grown it for the past 30 years or so. I'm hoping to see "arms" before I pass this mortal plain.
My dad had a saguaro that he brought back from a road trip in to the 70's. He nursed it until it died in the late 90's it was at least 5' tall and nowhere near as robust as your beast!
 

Yvonne G

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No work has been done for a week or so, then yesterday afternoon the cement trucks started lining up one behind the other. They finished up this afternoon. The footing for the retaining wall is completed:

road widening 7-13-22.jpg

I understand it has to cure for a couple weeks, so I don't expect any work to be done for a while. The wall itself will be built on the street side of that cement footing, then they'll install some sort of mesh behind the wall, then backfill. I'm getting a double sided 5' redwood fence on top of the wall, which will serve as a sound barrier to help filter out traffic noise.
 

jeff kushner

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THIS close!.....by Sept ....the green will have begun filling in and you will have a beautiful corner again.

I think you may notice a larger drop in transmitted sound once they pour the wall then you are expecting. Most road noise is produced w/i 4' of the roadway itself. What goes to the sides lessens in amplitude(loudness) as the angle rises........by reflecting, the concrete wall may really make it nicer for you guys!
 

Maggie3fan

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THIS close!.....by Sept ....the green will have begun filling in and you will have a beautiful corner again.

I think you may notice a larger drop in transmitted sound once they pour the wall then you are expecting. Most road noise is produced w/i 4' of the roadway itself. What goes to the sides lessens in amplitude(loudness) as the angle rises........by reflecting, the concrete wall may really make it nicer for you guys!
You've never heard the low riders drive past her house at 70 mph blasting a massive sound system. My room is at the back of her house away from the street, I am deaf as a post and even I can hear the music noise
 

Yvonne G

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You've never heard the low riders drive past her house at 70 mph blasting a massive sound system. My room is at the back of her house away from the street, I am deaf as a post and even I can hear the music noise
And they have the base turned all the way up. It rattles my windows.
 

Yvonne G

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Day before yesterday, and yesterday the scrapers and rollers (used to be called steam roller ???) worked the delivered and spread sand flat and smooth. All day long driving back and forth, flattening and compressing. Then in the evening they delivered several pallets of retaining wall blocks.

road widening 7-26-22 a.jpg

And in case you were wondering what happens if one of the crew has a sand box emergency, they drag this little trailer to the work sites:
road widening 7-26-22 b.jpgroad widening 7-26-22 c.jpgroad widening 7-26-22 d.jpg


Watching the wall go up is going to be interesting. Evidently there are actually two walls, one with different, stronger bricks behind the other. All of those bricks are now stacked up on my side of the street all along my frontage. So tomorrow they'll place them. I'll get a picture tonight when I go down to the mailbox.
 

Yvonne G

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Here's a couple pictures of the stacks of blocks. The second picture shows what the blocks look like. I've never seen a retaining wall being built, so I'm guessing, but these blocks will be installed behind where the actual face of the retaining wall is going to go. These are heavier and a different shape, and I guess they will be stronger at holding back the 'cliff'.

road widening 7-27-22 a.jpgroad widening 7-27-22 b.jpg
 

Yvonne G

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Well, I was wrong about there going to be two walls, one behind the other. At the end of the day today they had mortared in place two rows of the base for the wall from the east side of my neighbor's properto up to about a quarter of my frontage. Looking down at the wall it looks like they're using two different pattern bricks, 'H' shaped and square. I don't know the reason for that. They have five or six different guys working at a time and it's going pretty fast. The guy across the street going west is getting a six foot wall. He must've negotiated for that in his contract. No retaining wall, just for privacy. So this crew is working at my neighbor's, mine and the across the street guy all at the same time.

road widening 7-28-22 a.jpgroad widening 7-28-22 b.jpgroad widening 7-28-22 c.jpg
 
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jaizei

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I think the sections with the H blocks are like columns, they reinforce the wall. The cross part is shorter so when they fill the inside, the concrete/grout connects better to other cells on either side.
 

jeff kushner

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You've never heard the low riders drive past her house at 70 mph blasting a massive sound system. My room is at the back of her house away from the street, I am deaf as a post and even I can hear the music noise


Hopefully, the wall will lower that racket for you Y and for your sensitive sister too! LOL

We all listened to loud music, some of us still do................but when did we figure out that making people around us, listen to our music, was no longer "cool'? When did we all grow up?

I've got one guy, a Potato-rider who guns his engine at each block who blasts his Bike-mounted sound system to the max....every morning around 3:30AM as he rides up my street. I shake my head ruefully wondering how many of his neighbors are wishing for his demise. I've got a garage full of bikes, mostly very loud 2 stroke street bikes and I'm even quieter when I ride where I live!

LOL

Nice thing bout that wall.....after they fill the voids, it looks like it will keep ANYTHING that rolls on wheels, from ending up in your yard!
 

Markw84

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What you see is the bottom two rows are the base of the wall. It is wider than the actual wall that will now sit on top of them matching the front face. The H blocks allows the concrete they will use to fill the wall cavities to actually fill across 2 sections of H block with a square block below or above to give added strength across each joint. More common 8" x 8" x 16" block will now go on top of those two base rows to make up the wall up to height. Makes a nice strong retaining wall.
 

Yvonne G

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Hopefully, the wall will lower that racket for you Y and for your sensitive sister too! LOL

We all listened to loud music, some of us still do................but when did we figure out that making people around us, listen to our music, was no longer "cool'? When did we all grow up?

I've got one guy, a Potato-rider who guns his engine at each block who blasts his Bike-mounted sound system to the max....every morning around 3:30AM as he rides up my street. I shake my head ruefully wondering how many of his neighbors are wishing for his demise. I've got a garage full of bikes, mostly very loud 2 stroke street bikes and I'm even quieter when I ride where I live!

LOL

Nice thing bout that wall.....after they fill the voids, it looks like it will keep ANYTHING that rolls on wheels, from ending up in your yard!
Bear (bare??? in mind that what's behind that wall is a cliff. My 'yard' is six or seven feet above the wall. It won't be a deterrent from crashes into my yard, and it won't be a sound barrier.
 

Yvonne G

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What you see is the bottom two rows are the base of the wall. It is wider than the actual wall that will now sit on top of them matching the front face. The H blocks allows the concrete they will use to fill the wall cavities to actually fill across 2 sections of H block with a square block below or above to give added strength across each joint. More common 8" x 8" x 16" block will now go on top of those two base rows to make up the wall up to height. Makes a nice strong retaining wall.
Yeah, the smaller blocks have now been delivered and are sitting on pallets waiting to be placed.
 
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