April 20

Today begins replacement of the driveway and sidewalks. Vic and George Pezzot are starting to unload equipment.

The skid loader will use two different front attachments, and the trailer is ready to receive rubble

Vic starts by lifting sidewalk tiles

Sidewalk tiles

Sidewalk tiles, neatly stacked

Front sidewalk removed. New walks will be a standard 4' wide. They'll also be farther out from the house, with their inside edge about where the old walks' outside edge was.

Rear sidewalk removed

The sidewalk tiles were in place in 1965 and probably original. My father worked hard to keep them neat despite dozens of chipmunks undermining them. The sand from the last time he leveled and aligned each tile is still in place.

These signs appeared on April 20, the same day that driveway and sidewalks were torn out. All streets in the neighborhood are to be repaved! Not sure where concrete equipment and parked cars are going to go...

Fortunately a UA supervisor saw the driveway work in progress and stopped by to chat. He told the paving crews to allow driveway work to proceed, and to notify our crew when this part of Sawmill would be paved. As it turned out, paving caused only two days' delay, far less than feared.

Frist step for driveway removal is to saw the asphalt away from the garage floor

Water keeps the saw blade cool

Almost all the way across the garage

Next step: break away enough asphalt so the skid loader can pry out large pieces

Vic hammers while George shovels

There's now enough room for the skid loader to pry

Lifting out asphalt and driveway bed

Nearly half the driveway is now torn up

Taking a stack of asphalt slabs to the trailer

Asphalt about to go in the trailer

The grade from street (higher) to garage (lower) was a concern. Rather than replace a questionable design that sloped evenly from street to garage, it was decided to keep the driveway level from garage to approach, with the approach rising to the street. This excavator came in to remove existing drain tiles under the approach, and deepen the trench for new ones.

The drain under the driveway approach is now deeper, and will be a single synthetic piece rather than concrete segments

Grading to blend the lowered drain with the yard

Completed grading

Filling in by the street

The excavator helps the skid loader pick up old drain tiles

Not the usual type of four-wheeled vehicle seen at this corner

At end of day, tear-out is complete, rubble hauled away and equipment staged for tomorrow