This past month, construction focused on:
- Excavating the inlet;
- Shaping and grading the Great Lawn on the south end of the park; and
- Building the bridge abutment of the new pedestrian bridge (the structure that connects the bridge deck to the ground).
For context, the pic on the left below is a rendering of the full park and the right is a zoom-in on the inlet and the Great Lawn on the south end.
The transformation of Ralph Wilson Park is a massive, complex construction project. Big equipment is excavating, moving and placing massive amounts of material. And, every single step is highly managed and controlled — and it is all based on the community driven vision and design set forth in Imagine LaSalle.
Pictured above is the largest CAT material handler in the world! The machine has a custom-made boom (the long arm!) and orange peel grapple (the claw!!) used for placing super heavy stone along the shoreline and now inlet.
The shoreline work is incredibly complex. Every single boulder, stone and scoop of dirt is very intentionally placed based on exact design specifications. The heavy equipment operators utilize state of the art 3-D technology to guide their excavation and placement work. Pictured below are the screens used in the excavator working on the inlet. On the screen you can see the elevation of the bucket and the layers of materials to be placed in the inlet.
Special thanks to Pat Abramo, Site Superintendent for Mark Cerrone Inc. and a member of the Operating Engineers Local 17 for taking us up in the excavator cab and explaining their 3-D earthworks system. If you would like to learn what inspired Pat to become an operator follow this link.
As always thank you for tuning in!
