Careful now!

 
FTLComm - Tisdale - Thursday, August 29, 2002

Lat yesterday Mr. Chupa had the water and sewer line up to the edge of the property installed and then shortly after five this morning the town crew slipped things under the SaskTel fibre optics line and it was time to move into the street.

The street/highway was blocked at Hannigans on the South side and at the town office on the North.
Traffic was heavy this morning as it is every morning but everyone was handling the detour pretty well although a Co-op "B" train tanker gave me a bit of a shock as he was about to roll through a yeild sign as I made my way to the work site on a bicycle.
 
 

The underground streetlight electrical cables were easily worked around and at 8:20 the pavement cutter blade on the grader was slicing through over six inches of pavement as the excavation headed for the manhole in the middle of the intersection.

Here is the good news. Paragon Paving is still working in Melfort and there is a good chance they will be able to repave the street tomorrow or early next week. The town had thought that they would have to live with a cold
 
 

patch fix on the pavement until next summer but the street should be as good as new in a few days.

Though getting by the fibre optics line was a tense operation working down to without stricking the water line was very tense. This water line is one of those made from an concrete material that stands up very well buried but a scrape from the backhoe's claw could shatter it and result in a messy problem.

The picture at the top of the page, the one on the right and below were taken at the critical stage as they edged toward the fragile water line.
 
 

The A&W work site is taking shape as the vertical column piles have been drilled and poured with fresh concrete and this morning the service lines were being backfilled and compacted.

This portable hand compactor slams sand downward compressing the material to prevent settling and protects the lines from the surrounding soil.

This was the first time I had noticed in Tisdale the dark gray/blue clay that is the basement for about half of the town. Below the six feet of mixed fill under the roadbed is a solid rockless plastic clay that flows and changes shape, absorbs water and shinks. Essentially it is lake bottom material with the adhesive qualities of gumbo. Just add water and stick.

At 10:00 this morning this picture shows the work site for the new A&W with the late summer sun giving the harsh morning shadows and a blistering 24º on what has got to be a record breaking day for temperatures at the end of August.
 

Timothy W. Shire

 
 

 

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Editor : Timothy W. Shire
Faster Than Light Communication
Box 1776, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada, S0E 1T0
306 873 2004