This was kind of cool

[hausdok]

They've been widening a curve for the past six months or so.

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OT - OF!!!

Mike

[ejager]

What are we looking at exactly? Is that raw rock face or have they added a concrete skin in order to reduce rock tumbling onto the road way? Trying to control mother nature with a vertical skin of concrete is a make work project with imminent failure possibilities higher than the naked cliff i would think.

[hausdok]

What are we looking at exactly? Is that raw rock face or have they added a concrete skin in order to reduce rock tumbling onto the road way? Trying to control mother nature with a vertical skin of concrete is a make work project with imminent failure possibilities higher than the naked cliff i would think.

That's a man-made retaining wall.

As best I can remember it from the little bit that I saw as I passed it everyday, the face of the hillside was covered with criss-crossed steel, tie-backs were sunk horizontally into the hillside every couple of feet and then it was covered with some type of shotcrete.

Near the center of the curve, instead of covering the steel with shotcrete they left a space about 12ft wide and a couple of I-beams were driven vertically deep into the ground with the ends projecting as high as the wall. The shotcrete ends on either side of those I-beams and the space between them is filled with huge pressure-treated timbers slid down into the channels. After that, a whole lot of rock went behind the timbers and the faux cliff face was applied over the top of the whole thing so that the timbers can't be seen. The photo depicts about 40% of the wall and doesn't even show the highest portion at the sharpest part of the curve.

What the photo doesn't show is the huge stone-filled drainage swale beneath that which collects the water from that slope and takes it under the road in front of where I was sitting at the light and allows it to disperse into a river less than 100 meters away.

It was interesting to watch them construct that wall. They started applying the tie-backs and steel at the top and worked their way downward, removing a couple of feet a week and driving in the steel when the hillside was at full height. They worked right through the start of the rainy season - the rainiest in recorded history - until they'd completely removed the old hillside and then they put in all of that drainage media below what they'd removed.

My guess; the pressure-treated timbers are meant to last about 50 or 60 years and that by then they will have either built something else there are will be planning to do so.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

[ejager]

That looks pretty cool and sounds like someone put some thought into it!

I lived on an island with lots of rain and little substantive structure to the hills that made up the island. A lot of work went into shaping the hills when roads were were widened but they just put shotscrete over it. When the big rains came, the soils washed away from behind, or sometimes, just blew out the bottom near the road and took the whole mess down into the sea. May have to dig into the old photo collection and scan pictures of the wrecks. I might even have pics of different approach they finally tried but I never stuck around long enough to see wether it was a success or failure.

[Erby]

Hey Mike. I see you got the watermark on your photo. Way to go. Might want to include a second line with some contact information like your website address.

Looks good.

[John Kogel]

I guess the graffiti artists will wait until it warms up a bit.

It's kinda cold to be standing there with your butt hanging out of your pants, eh? []

[hausdok]

Hey Mike. I see you got the watermark on your photo. Way to go. Might want to include a second line with some contact information like your website address.

Looks good.

Website? What the hell is that?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[randynavarro]

Ahh yes. Our tax dollars at work.

They're getting ready for the big onslaught once they start tolling one of the two bridges that connects the eastside of the city to the main Seattle area.

Folks will bypass the toll bridge (rumour has it, it's going to be pretty spendy) and start commuting through our area to get from one side of the lake t'other.

Traffic will be a mess, and if it's like all the other traffic engineering projects in the Puget Sound, there really won't be much of a difference. For whatever reason, our roads and highways seem to be a few decades behind the curve.

[Erby]

Sorry Mike. I keep forgetting what a curmudgeon you are.

Do you know what a phone number is? You could use that.

[hausdok]

Sorry Mike. I keep forgetting what a curmudgeon you are.

Do you know what a phone number is? You could use that.

Phone number? Oh yeah, I know that one; that's where you pick up the receiver, click the button twice, the lady comes on and says, "Number please," and then you tell her the number, like, "393, the O'Handley's, the place next to Ackleman's on West Main street," and then you get the O'Handley's, right?

Hee hee, yeah, I might stick my number on there; although, since I am sticking these photos into a report with my number on the report, I'm not sure that I want to clutter them up with a lot of redundant stuff.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Erby]

Don't forget that you have to listen to make sure no one else is on the line before you start prattling!