Progress on Greenway--Nov. 16, 2010

Photos & text by Kathleen McElroy  posted Nov. 16, 2010, 7:05 pm.

Hi folks,

I think today we've now seen all the pieces as they are being put together in the reconstruction of the greenway, after the sewer and laterals are replaced. The orange fences are now removed from the properties down here, and they have completed the storm channel alongside our house. The channel includes a little dam, nothing remarkable, kind of a bump in the layer of stone, but enough to slow the water a bit and eventually provide a little waterfall there.

The channel progress is slowed by the fact that they are doing both the tree planting and the erosion-control landscaping as they go. They planted another 7 trees down here today, leveled and stabilized the areas where the soil has been disturbed, mulched the trees, then seeded around them with what sounds like an expensive grass and wildflower mix.

Once seeded, the ground is covered with an erosion mat, to keep the seeds in place especially on the side slopes, to give the seeds a chance to germinate. If it stays warm and we get a bit of rain, we could see some of the seed sprouting already this fall, and beginning to dig their roots into the soil to stabilize the sloping hillsides.

New trees with mulch around--really good sized trees.
Click photos to enlarge.

Seed

 Installing the erosion mat; note that they are working around the tree mulch. They are pinning the erosion mat to the ground over the seeded ground, to give the seeds a chance to sprout where they were seeded.

Unrolling the erosion mat on our side, working around a tree--and finishing the mat on Marsha's side. Riprap channel in between.

Shows the scale of the reseeding and installation of the erosion mat.  In this case, all the soil disturbed during the installation of the lateral has been seeded and matted, and I think we all can expect that.

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Both Kathy and I are unable to report on progress for the rest of the week.  If you would like to contribute a report, send me an email with text, including photos as an attachment.  I will try to post them the same evening.  DavidThompson20@aol.com