Reclamation (4)
Sometimes a reclamation
is hidden from view,
because
what will eventually be reclaimed
is a good distance from where
the work is taking place
Right next to the mouth of the creek
is one of those reclamation projects
A grass lot that serves as a combination
traffic island/pocket green space
at the confluence of three streets
has been fenced off,
and
the fence topped with barbed wire
and in places having a tarp on it
to keep the work from view
(though
with some equipment taller than the fence
and the tarp not being complete
the attempted secrecy fails)
A portion of one of the three streets
has been blocked off from traffic,
and
serves as a warehouse for large pieces of pipe
(pipes
somewhere between five and six feet in diameter),
pipe that will eventually be part
of a new sewer tunnel,
connecting
this segment to the other segments underway
closer to the wastewater treatment plant
A giant auger is boring its way
underground toward those other segments,
its noised muffled by the ground above
and swallowed up by the noises of the city
A crane is on hand to lower
the large pieces of pipe once
the tunnel's excavation is complete
The project also goes hand-in-hand
with a smaller but more disruptive one
on the other side of the creek's mouth,
where
the road has been dug up,
smaller pipes put in
(to lead to the larger pipes
once the larger pipes are completely
in place),
and then
the trenches in the road filled back in,
the road to be re-paved at a later date
And one can only hope that,
once
the project is completed,
flooded basements upstream
(such flooding cause both by building on flood plains
and the urbanization/suburbanization
that turns hundred-year floods into ten-year ones,
etc.)
will be at least partially reclaimed
from future flooding
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