WmX – Page 163 – Black and White

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)

Miss Chelsea — SAK Construction’s TBM, Miss Chelsea is on the move, headed NNE, grinding through 1700+ feet of bedrock, going where no one has gone before.
Interesting boring job.

operator conveyance — Drive to work, ride the man-basket down into the hole, fire up the TBM. How is the machine moved forward? What protective gear does the operator wear? At the moment it’s a horizontal short walk (100+ feet) from the tunnel entrance to Ms. Chelsea. Later on it’ll be longer. Bike to work? What is the lighting like in there? Any chance of a live video feed?

old soldier, Carl D. Proffitt

Chubby fetches the DP — Olive and Chubby built their Woolen Mills house in 1939. I admire his service record. Daily Progress has that story.

2009 Dogwood Festival Parade — Additionally, I admire his persistence, his neighborliness. He always had a kind word. He lived on, beyond Olive, beyond five siblings. It takes a lot of courage to age in place. Chubby Proffitt had courage.

Chance

Chance the dog — Mike’s dog, Chance. He lost his sunglasses somewhere along Route 29

brown and white

waiting for Dr. Handley — old dog old human visit Georgetown Veterinary. Wish we aged at the same rate.

Monticello, Saunders Trail, VDOT, Route 20 South

Saunders trail — Walked to Monticello this morning on the Saunders trail. Lots of pedestrians out. Encountered 114 people on the way up the mountain, 130 on the way down.

Saunders trail lot — People enjoy walking in a place where cars are disciplined and there is canopy overhead. The great paradox is that to find such a place they have to drive to it. The Saunder’s Trail Parking lot was packed.

bike hell — Long range City and County plans envision a bike ped connection to the Saunder’s trailhead. Meanwhile, from Charlottesville one must walk or bike 4000+ feet on the VDOT Route 20 South straightaway. A road that is a killing field for cyclists and walkers. There are no provisions for users other than motorists. The vehicles are in max velocity mode. Taching up for I-64, or in a post interstate frame of mind, four lane divided highway, high speed merges, go go go!

Panhandling Planter

charlottesville downtown plantless planter — This planter near the “central place” of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall seems to support fauna more often than flora.

old dogs

town creek — A decade earlier we jumped in the water. Now we look at the water.

distant storm

Town Creek night — the well mannered thunderstorm, produced a quarter inch of rain, light wind and a little cloud illumination.

3/7

0.42857142857? 3:7? Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. — 0.42857142857? 3:7? Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. There is the symbol, not sure of the intended meaning.

A million cubic feet

CAT 740B — Work was paused temporarily Monday at RWSA’s excavation for members of the public to visit the site, the location of the future Rivanna pumping station.

nobody looks good in a hardhat — First up. Schooling from Dr. Richard Gullick on this great project, using gravity to transport waste water to the sewage plant instead of building a massive pump station adjacent to residences, a state scenic river and a park. The influent to the new pumping station will flow through a pipe in a tunnel bored through 1600 feet of bedrock.

big hole — Attendees at the edge of the excavation.

release the Kraken! — The tunnel boring machine, the mechanical star in our community drama of doing the best, not the cheapest, thing. Enduring thanks to the public and the RWSA Board for this outcome.