The Neighborhood Improvement District (NID) will commence work on or near 10/27/08. You should have received a notice from TraMar Contracting, Inc. explaining their role. The job superintendent is Mr. Scott Wetmore and he will be on site every day. There are a few things we would like to remind you about.
If you have a neighbor who does not do e-mail, would you print off this memo and give it to them? There will also be a pile of them on Judy's porch, 793 Yale and on Morty's porch, 739 Harvard for anyone to pick up it they need to.
The contractor estimates 70 work days for this project, excluding bad weather and holidays. We have requested priority for the street drainage problems. If the weather closes in on us, we will defer some of the sidewalks until spring. We are still hoping that we will complete this this season. The good news is that we do not get the bill from the city until everything is completed, so it looks like that will be at least the first of the year, if not later. But set aside your money because it will come due.
Please obey the signs and keep off the ripped up sidewalks. They are dangerous to walk on. Cars will have to be off certain streets at times and you will not have access to your driveways for at least a week sometimes. We hope not to, but we will tow if the parking signs are not obeyed and the project is held up. Please allow the employees to do their work. They have a tight schedule and do not have time to discuss the history of your sidewalk. If you have any questions or problems, call a trustee.
In order to replace the sidewalks, the crews will remove the offending slabs (marked with white and pink Xs) and build forms in which they will pour the new concrete. This will entail having approximately 2" of room surrounding the slab available for the forms. If you have a retaining wall, stone wall, railroad ties which are resting on the slab, we may have to remove them, but can probably work around items abutting the slab. The crews will do their best to not dig up too much of the walls and gardens, but you might expect some damage. If you could trim the foliage back where it is over the sidewalk, it would be a help, and you might be happier with your own trim style than theirs.
The utility companies have marked most of the utility locations. Please mark your sprinkler heads with a stake or some device to help them find them.
The slabs to be replaced will be done first, followed by patching small breaks. It has been difficult getting the concrete color correct and we have reached an accord with the contractor to make the mix with Meramec gravel, which is a brownish hue. The initial pour will be whiter/grayer than we wished, but it will weather down to an acceptable color as the gravel is exposed. The curbs and gutters will be standard gray construction concrete.
As you have noticed, it is not apparent why some perfectly good slabs are marked to be removed. Sometimes we need to do several good slabs to get the grade inched up to some high slab. We have tended to leave the high slab at the base of trees because lowering it would mean cutting up the roots too much. In some instances we have removed a run of perfectly good slabs because they were causing water to stand on other slabs. We are attempting to tilt all the new slabs toward the streets to prevent standing water. In some cases, we are going to shave off some of the soil on the tree lawn, because it is preventing water from running off the sidewalks into the street. These treelawns have grown taller that the sidewalks in many cases, due to mulch, accumulated lawn clippings and the rich dog droppings over the years. We will not shave these near tree roots.
The Missing Lampost at Yale/Dartmouth/Radcliffe: MSD has removed it and repaired the sewer. They are going to pay for us to hire TraMar Contracting to repour the base with a pipe course in the middle for the new wires. After that is installed, a company will bore under the street and install the wire which runs from the base to the nearby streetlight. Then AmerenUE will come and lift off the light pole to allow the wiring to be connected to the power within the light pole, with the aid of our electrician. At this point the beautiful lamppost will be reinstalled and relit. Whew! Glad we are not paying for this.
And in case you forgot your trustees, call us at the following numbers if there is any problem. Thanks.
If you have a neighbor who does not do e-mail, would you print off this memo and give it to them? There will also be a pile of them on Judy's porch, 793 Yale and on Morty's porch, 739 Harvard for anyone to pick up it they need to.
The contractor estimates 70 work days for this project, excluding bad weather and holidays. We have requested priority for the street drainage problems. If the weather closes in on us, we will defer some of the sidewalks until spring. We are still hoping that we will complete this this season. The good news is that we do not get the bill from the city until everything is completed, so it looks like that will be at least the first of the year, if not later. But set aside your money because it will come due.
Please obey the signs and keep off the ripped up sidewalks. They are dangerous to walk on. Cars will have to be off certain streets at times and you will not have access to your driveways for at least a week sometimes. We hope not to, but we will tow if the parking signs are not obeyed and the project is held up. Please allow the employees to do their work. They have a tight schedule and do not have time to discuss the history of your sidewalk. If you have any questions or problems, call a trustee.
In order to replace the sidewalks, the crews will remove the offending slabs (marked with white and pink Xs) and build forms in which they will pour the new concrete. This will entail having approximately 2" of room surrounding the slab available for the forms. If you have a retaining wall, stone wall, railroad ties which are resting on the slab, we may have to remove them, but can probably work around items abutting the slab. The crews will do their best to not dig up too much of the walls and gardens, but you might expect some damage. If you could trim the foliage back where it is over the sidewalk, it would be a help, and you might be happier with your own trim style than theirs.
The utility companies have marked most of the utility locations. Please mark your sprinkler heads with a stake or some device to help them find them.
The slabs to be replaced will be done first, followed by patching small breaks. It has been difficult getting the concrete color correct and we have reached an accord with the contractor to make the mix with Meramec gravel, which is a brownish hue. The initial pour will be whiter/grayer than we wished, but it will weather down to an acceptable color as the gravel is exposed. The curbs and gutters will be standard gray construction concrete.
As you have noticed, it is not apparent why some perfectly good slabs are marked to be removed. Sometimes we need to do several good slabs to get the grade inched up to some high slab. We have tended to leave the high slab at the base of trees because lowering it would mean cutting up the roots too much. In some instances we have removed a run of perfectly good slabs because they were causing water to stand on other slabs. We are attempting to tilt all the new slabs toward the streets to prevent standing water. In some cases, we are going to shave off some of the soil on the tree lawn, because it is preventing water from running off the sidewalks into the street. These treelawns have grown taller that the sidewalks in many cases, due to mulch, accumulated lawn clippings and the rich dog droppings over the years. We will not shave these near tree roots.
The Missing Lampost at Yale/Dartmouth/Radcliffe: MSD has removed it and repaired the sewer. They are going to pay for us to hire TraMar Contracting to repour the base with a pipe course in the middle for the new wires. After that is installed, a company will bore under the street and install the wire which runs from the base to the nearby streetlight. Then AmerenUE will come and lift off the light pole to allow the wiring to be connected to the power within the light pole, with the aid of our electrician. At this point the beautiful lamppost will be reinstalled and relit. Whew! Glad we are not paying for this.
And in case you forgot your trustees, call us at the following numbers if there is any problem. Thanks.
