Working on the Boardwalk 9/22 & 9/25/10

This week was a huge work week on the boardwalk.

Two crews worked nearly 4 hours Wednesday night, one in the cage building sections and the other installing sections in the bog. Both sessions brought together volunteers from Bowman community and Scouts helping Terrance Smith with this Eagle Scout project.

Wednesday night crews, 9/22/10
We marveled at the lovely sunset and suddenly the moonrise. A full moon on Equinox came up just as the sun went down. How special is that!?

Saturday, 9/25/10, was a long day. Crews started at 9 in the morning and called it a day about 5 or thereabouts. We finished building the last 3 sections needed to take Terrance's leg to the south turn. Once the straight path nears the turn, we can put in the right angles to make the final sections meet smoothly.

Then Terrance's crew of family and friends, plus a few Bowman community volunteers, moved the sections down the hill. Thanks again to Dave Owmby at Tag-Along-Trailers for supplying the right trailer for the job.

Sections also were loaded onto a Lowe's lumber cart that could be wheeled down the boardwalk to the active installation.

One group of volunteers worked on adding toe rails, to help guard against stepping or rolling off the edge.

The crew installing sections cleared brush, knocked down high spots and connected the sections in a straight line along a string stretched toward the ultimate end.

August / September 2010 Progress

The boardwalk continues growing!

Volunteers come together almost every week to work on the boardwalk. Wednesday nights drew the most people during summer, and now with school in session, Saturday mornings are a better bet for most volunteers.

Terrance continues to draw helpers from the Scouting community and is making steady progress on his project leg through the native bog. Most recently, his group completed the platform/gathering area and has started installing the sections that will eventually reach the leg along the park's south boundary.

One Saturday, his crew moved 17 sections from the construction site in the Bowman parking lot down into the park using a trailer from Tag-Along-Trailers and a 4-wheeler from Whalen Construction.

Dave Owmby at Tag-Along has consistently and graciously responded to our requests to borrow his trailers. He delivers each one and picks it up at the end of our work session.

We could not accomplish this project without our business partners, such as Dave. Our partners are listed on the right of our blog page.

Thanks to McKinley Fencing, we've had a secure cage for 3 years to hold all the construction materials. The fencing loaned for what we thought would be a single season has been on site now in our 3rd season of project work. We certainly appreciate McKinley Fencing!

Likewise, Lowe's has helped tremendously. We started this project with grants from the national Lowe's education foundation and the south Anchorage store, which is a business partner with our school, provided additional grants and discounts on materials. Most recently, Lowe's allowed us several exchanges of construction materials. Our best estimates at the start of this project in 2008 are now coming down to real and final figures. We've needed more of one item and fewer of others. Lowe's has made those exchanges and delivered for free as an in-kind donation that counts toward our Rasmuson Challenge Grant from the Anchorage Parks Foundation.

Another business partner that has provide in-kind donations has been Treeline Construction. We've been able to level our boardwalk sections, in the uneven bog, thanks to surplus Trex materials that Treeline provided.

Then all the volunteers! More than 100 individuals have given time, energy and expertise to this project since we started. A number of them have been regulars, at practically every work party. This is a total community effort.