sidewalk superintendent keeps an eye on the project
30 Thursday Jun 2011
Posted Demolition
in30 Thursday Jun 2011
Posted Demolition
in30 Thursday Jun 2011
Posted Demolition
inWe have a number of views today of the continuing demolition. Most interesting is the removal of the old wooden piles that supported the Transbay Terminal. Even after 70 years in the ground, they look in perfect condition !
Also interesting has been the installation of the CDSM (Cement Deep Soil Mixing) shoring wall.
The huge I-beams that have been stacked in the center section of the site are being welded together in pairs, making a single “soldier pile” that is 120 feet long.
A triple-auger drilling rig moves along the periphery of the site, drilling 3 holes at a time, and at the same time pumping a grout mixture into the shafts.
Then a very large crane moves each soldier pile into position and slowly lowers it into the shaft. And I can’t believe this — the construction guys actually use a BUBBLE LEVEL to check the pile for plumb as it lowers into the shaft ! I asked a Japanese guy who is sort of supervising the triple auger drilling rig, how such an old technology can be used, instead of some new digital-type tool. He said that the bubble level is adequate at this stage of construction. The only thing that is important now is that the soldier piles not be kicking back or angling back into the excavation side of the site. The interior wall of the “bathtub” will of course be engineered to a much greater degree of accuracy.
The following four photos show some iron barriers (that link together, I need somebody to tell me what they’re called) driven into the ground right on the side of Anchor & Hope on Minna Street. At first I thought this was part of the real construction, but apparently it was sort of an experiment or testing, and they were later removed.
The next couple of photos were taken prior to the monthly community meeting at the TJPA offices at 201 Mission Street. They have such a great view of the project site from their offices ! I guess that makes sense though, since they are running the show. I wish I had a vantage point to get good aerial shots. There should be a “viewing platform” built for the use of site club people to get good photos — it would hopefully discourage the sneaky people from getting to close to the dangerous areas. But without it, you will continue to see my “street-level” photos here !
This is the father/son team from the sawmill up by Santa Rosa, taking a load of the old wooden piles away. They told me that they will dry the piles, plane them, and then sell them for the construction of log homes in the mountains.
30 Thursday Jun 2011
Posted Demolition
inThe sensibilities of the Millenium Tower’s residents are protected by this wall constructed by TJPA. While the residents all knew full well when they moved in that the project was proceeding, the TJPA has really make huge efforts to protect the residents from noise, dirt and dust, and inconvenience. The TJPA group is really a model for how a big project should be run. They deserve kudos for all of their efforts.
22 Wednesday Jun 2011
Posted Planning
in14 Tuesday Jun 2011
Posted Around the neighborhood
inIf I had been rich enough to buy the premiere condo at 1 Ecker (a fourth floor unit facing Market Street), this building would have been framed in the view out of my living room windows.
Oh well, I got to see that view for about 20 seconds during my walkthrough of that model unit on the first day of the open house.
And here is how 1 Ecker looks from Market Street, peeking through the POPOS area between two high-rise buildings on Market. It would have been noisy as heck, but wow, it would have also been so convenient, so much fun, such an adventure. And I would have been out on the streets every day and night exploring and photographing. Maybe someday…
12 Sunday Jun 2011
Posted Natoma Street Blues
in12 Sunday Jun 2011
Posted Natoma Street Blues
inThis is an impression in the sidewalk in front of Zebulon Restaurant on Natoma Street. Along with the words, a table setting was “set” into the cement. The knife and spoon are gone, leaving only their impressions, but as you can see, the fork is still there.
Soon it will be gone. I wonder if Francisco & Molly have a photo of it — or is mine the only evidence of the lost message.
10 Friday Jun 2011
Posted Around the neighborhood
inI often cut through Elim Alley when I am either on my way to fondly gaze at 1 Ecker, or else headed to the site. I thought I remembered something that said that Elim alley is the narrowest street in San Francisco. When researching this, I found the definitive info, from Carl Nolte and the San Francisco Chronicle:
Duck into alley for a quick taste of S.F. history
Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, December 5, 2010
“Alleys are unique to cities,” says Gabriel Metcalf, the executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, an urban think tank. “They are hidden discoveries.”
An alley is really a narrow street, where cars are either banned or restricted. Some, like Belden Place in the Financial District and nearby Mark and Claude lanes, are lined with cafes. One tourist guide calls Belden “an adorable little brick alley. … You’d think you were in Paris.”
Others, like Stark Street, off Stockton Street in Chinatown, are ugly. Stark lives up to its name – lined with concrete walls and garbage cans, it ends in a stark wall. In another part of town, the walls of Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley, both in the Mission District, are covered in glorious murals.
There are disappearing alleys, like Jessie and Stevenson streets, which run south of Market through downtown for a block or two before vanishing, only to reappear a block away. Jessie runs east from 10th Street to First Street like a dashed line, a street interrupted.
Near where Jessie runs into First is Elim Alley, only 8 feet wide, the narrowest downtown street. But Elim is a boulevard compared to Cooper Alley, a grim-looking street that runs south from Jackson Street near Kearny Street in Chinatown. Cooper is only 6 feet wide – you can stand in the middle, reach out and touch the walls on either side of the alley. It does not look like a place to linger on a rainy winter’s night.
If Belden Place reminds tourists of Paris, the alleys of Chinatown are another world entirely. There is both a vibrant street scene and a sense of another life behind closed doors.
Some, like Pagoda Alley, have two names. It is also Hang Ah Alley, which means “fragrance” in Chinese, named for an early day perfume factory run by a German. In the 19th century, all Chinatown alleys had a Chinese name. As Jessie Cook, an old San Francisco cop told it, Ross Alley, one of the oldest alleys in the city, was Gow Louie Sun Hong, or “old Spanish alley,” named for Spaniards who lived there long ago before Chinatown was Chinatown. Spofford Alley was called Sun Louie Sun Hong, or “new Spanish alley.” Even the past had a past.
Almost where Grant Avenue runs into Broadway is a little street named for Jack Kerouac. Kerouac was a great lover of alleys – he wrote part of “On the Road” on Russell Street, an alley near Hyde and Union streets on Russian Hill. A quote from “On the Road” is embedded in the pavement of Kerouac Alley: “The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great I thought I was in a dream.”
Kerouac Alley connects Chinatown with North Beach in a street only 6o feet long. At one end is a Chinese poultry shop, at the other is City Lights bookstore. “At our front side, we faced the Western world. At our back we faced the Eastern world,” said Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the poet who owns City Lights.
He also came up with the idea of naming 13 alleys for San Francisco writers and authors. He got one himself – Via Ferlinghetti in North Beach.
Chula Lane, next to Mission Dolores, may be haunted. It is built on the site of hundreds of unmarked Indian graves. Nearby is Camp Street, the site of the first European structure in San Francisco, a temporary building built of brush and logs, where the Spanish celebrated Mass on Jun. 29, 1776, and founded what became the great city of San Francisco. At the corner of Camp and Albion streets is a monument to the Rammaytush, the nearly forgotten first people of San Francisco.
There is still country in the city along Ohlone Way, a winding alley lined with berry bushes that connects Sussex and Surrey streets in Glen Park. Ohlone Way may be San Francisco’s last unpaved street.
10 Friday Jun 2011
Posted Demolition
in10 Friday Jun 2011
Posted Demolition
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