Started
Well today officially started the excavation and therefore the construction. And it started bright and early. Park mentioned they would be around at 8:30 this morning so I set the 7:30 alarm intending to have breakfast and then getting setup for the loading of the trucks.
At 7:32 AM Parm called to advise they had arrived and were waiting. I got there in about 5 minutes and did not stop till 7 PM tonight. It took 15 minutes or so to prepare the site for loading and then I loaded the first truck (debris dirt) by 9 AM.
I stopped for a quick bite to eat and to send some emails and then returned to the site to work on the NW tree bank undercut. I also loaded the railroad and pressure treated ties onto the trailer.
At 12 noon the truck returned (three hour round trip to Squamish) and by 1 PM he was gone again. It takes more time to load with Alfie due to bucket size so I hope the big boy comes soon. I took the opportunity of a 3 hour span before needing to load again to run out to the Eco-Waste dump in Richmond to get rid of the ties (2 hour round trip). The dump has an area for general waste as well and is the only place that will take railway ties. These were rotted and not really good for anything anymore.
On return, I spend the next hour starting to scrape the top 2ft or so of soil from the site. This is the dirt I will use as back-fill and is above the hardened glacial till layer. I used this to create a new ramp that Alfie could sit on to allow loading the final load of take away dirt.
The truck returned at 4 and I sent him on his way again at 5 PM. I continued working till 7 PM scraping off more of the top layer of dirt. I was able to get an area about a quarter of the build site done. It is slow going as I basically have to pile and then repile the dirt in a leap frog process in order to get from where dug up to behind the build site where it will be stared. Alfie is not strong enough to push large volumes with the blade, so this is the fastest way to move the dirt. I hope to hear good news tomorrow about getting a bigger machine on site.
One huge surprise was the drive past the house being torn down beside where I used to live on 6 Rd. When I went by a month or so ago, there were many areas cordoned off with tree protection fencing. Well today, the entire 2 acre property had been razed to the ground. I am pretty sure this was not per plans and there was also a City ordered Stop Work posting. Was sad to see all the lovely fruit trees gone that were no where near the house build site. I am glad I got to see and taste them one last time.
