Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 7)

Don't let these sparse-looking photos fool you - a tremendous amount of work has been underway at the Sellwood Bridge during the past couple months of great weather.  New piers, significant work below the surface at the west end of the bridge, and even the beginnings of a third bridge have kept Slayden and Sundt and their many sub-contractors very busy.  Click on this link to go to the 7th slideshow in my series.  It refers to some topics covered in prior slideshows, which you can find by scrolling down this page or looking through the blog archive on the right.

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 6)

Work continued at a fast pace at the Sellwood Bridge during July and early August 2012, as shown in Slideshow 6, viewable on youtube at this link.  A significant amount of the work is focused on underground structures, necessary in supporting the piers of the temporary bridge now being built, and necessary in reducing the effects of the slow landslide at the west end of the bridge.  A couple of residential buildings were removed at the east end of the bridge.  The river piers are now all at just about at the right height to receive the parts of the old bridge which will be shifted over to create the temporary bridge.  Kudos to the work crews for withstanding the high temperatures this August - they're out there working in the sun, wearing hardhats, long pants, safety vests, heavy tool-belts, etc.!

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 5)

Things started to get really busy again at the Sellwood Bridge during June, as you'll see in Slideshow 5, viewable on YouTube at this link.  It's interesting to think of how much of the work will not be visible once the whole project is finished: a significant amount of work is being done underground to stabilize the land on which the bridge (and connections to nearby roadways) will be built.  Evidently this would have to be done even if the bridge had been built up- or down-river of its present location.  Another interesting thing to realize, when you go across the old bridge, is that people are working on narrow plywood platforms just below the road surface.  You can see the work platforms near the tops of the existing bridge piers, where crews are drilling holes through the piers - watch the slideshow to find out why!

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 4)

Things are still somewhat slow at the Sellwood Bridge construction site, primarily because permit applications for the project are being reviewed.  But I got over there a couple of times in the past month and put together a somewhat shorter slideshow, viewable at this youtube link.
What amazed me this month, more than the construction project itself, was how green the surrounding area has become since the last time I was out there.  The mix of bright green leafy trees among the darker green evergreens in the hills on the west side was beautiful.
Another thing that I found fascinating this past month was that descendants of the former tribal inhabitants of the Willamette Valley were invited to harvest trees in the project area as part of the overall tree removal necessary for building the new bridge.  More coverage of that story is available here: Indian Country Today Media Network.

Sellwood Bridge Construction (Slideshow 3)

February and March were not the best months for outdoor photography, given the frequent gray skies - but then there weren't a lot of large, visible changes to photograph at the Sellwood Bridge during those months.  This slideshow (click on link below) highlights some of the work done during that time, and it includes comments from Mike Pullen, of the Multnomah County Communications Office.  He describes some of the complex permitting process for this project, and explains some of the difficulties encountered while driving piles earlier this year.

This link  Link to Slideshow  will take you to youtube.com to view the slideshow, and there you'll see links to other Sellwood Bridge slideshows that I posted earlier this year.

Sound Engineering Principles, Lesson 2

"Sound engineering principles" could be a reference to my civil engineering background, but here I'm actually talking about "sound engineering", that is, working with audio recordings.  In Lesson 2 here, check out an example of adding noise to a recording.

Why add extra noise to a recording?

If  you're in a noisy environment and the noise suddenly stops, you notice, usually with a sigh of relief.  If you record a person speaking in a noisy environment, which may be unavoidable, you have to find a way to make the background noise continuous when you edit that recording.  This lesson provides a sample of such a situation.  Click on the gray link below to listen.

Link to Audio Sample

Free History Lesson

The other day my friend and I were taking a day trip around the Columbia Gorge, and by chance, we stumbled across a collection of antique construction and logging equipment.  Yay!  It was sunny and I had my camera along - the perfect opportunity to 'geek out' and take all sorts of equipment photos.  I don't think any of these machines will ever grade another roadway or haul another log, but it was fascinating to find them all.