Deep Bronson

Since the end of March, anyone who lives or works within a block or two of Bronson Avenue has had to endure the nearly constant hammering of the bedrock under the street by the excavators as part of the Bronson Avenue reconstruction project. This photo shows why: the feedermain is a considerable distance under the surface. The bottom of the pit is at least three times as deep as these two workers are tall:

The feedermain—that black-sheathed concrete pipe—isn't what splits off to bring water to each property, that's for the regular watermain. The feedermain is the spine of the water system that feeds the watermains. This one that runs under Bronson is installed in precast segments about four feet in diameter, and delivers water at high pressure, eventually, to the south end of the city.

Getting a pipe that wide that far down through some of the hardest and shallowest bedrock in the City takes a hell of a lot of digging.


On a lighter note, you may have walked through McNabb Park and seen the pathway closed off on the Florence end. I know I did a couple times and went around another way.

Well it turns out that if you just walk around the fence to the right, there's an opening behind Sleepwell's offices, in the little square of park that was reclaimed a couple of years ago. There's a path that leads you out to Bronson Avenue.

If you look at the City's online eMap application, and you apply the aerial photo layer and property boundary layer, you can see that part of the stub of Florence Street (roughly as far out as the tree above) is technically part of McNabb Park, and isn't road allowance, even though it looks like a road and quacks like a road. This means that when the Florence Street stub is restored after this work that has dug it up, the end nearest the park can be built as a park.

The part closer to Bronson is still road right-of-way. There's a reason why the park's boundary does this little jog, but reviewing all the factors at play in this corner of the park would be a whole separate blog post.

As for the construction, the noisiest parts of this year's work are nearly over and work has started on the surface finishings, such as this retaining wall at the corner of Bronson and Gladstone.

In other words, the end is in sight for this year's construction.