I just drove by the Homestead and the assisted living project. I am pleased to report moderate to good progress on both. Framing has started on one house in Homestead. I mistakenly assumed this house to be a Weekley house because Weekley was first to start the construction office and the posting of "for sale" signs in the development........but I was wrong. The sign in front of the framing is Cambridge. They are also working on the great sign at the Chiesa Road entrance. I was most surprised to find that landscaping had started. Trees had been planted in a small park and holes dug to plant more trees in the street median near the Chiesa Road entrance. It looked like some irrigation work had started. Final grading, including the lot benching was underway, however I am concerned with some of the grades. Some of the level lots are fine. But, some grading seems to suggest additional retaining wall height or double retaining walls. The "angle of repose" (angle of stability whereby erosion tends to be mitigated--usually about 45 degrees) of some of the lots creates a very steep grade at some of the lot's edge. You're not going to mow these lots with a typical mower, motorized or otherwise. I have no idea what the "fix" is here. Maybe city engineers and the developer's engineers have a solution......but it's probably not going to be good. I think the retaining walls (where necessary) need to be higher whereby the "angle of bank" can be softened to a lessor grade........one that the future homeowner would not fall out of his lot when mowing.
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Very pleased to see the "restart" of the assisted living project on Chiesa Road. Substantially more grading and forming has been done. Some lanes/parking are now ready for steel.
One of the things I never did understand was the grading of "berms" around the project. Essentially, a lake was built during the recent rainy season. After a heavy rain (which we've had much of), the moisture was retained on the project because it's drainage was impaired by berms. Therefore, this project dried out much slower than normal. Of course, that played havoc with setting reinforcing steel and final grading of parking and fire lanes. Understandably, that compounded the problem of concrete delivery. With concrete in short supply, there is a two week lead time on delivery. If you miss that delivery because you are not ready for the trucks, you get placed back in line for another two weeks. A couple of missed concrete delivery dates because the forms and steel weren't ready, because it was too wet, because of the berms, can add significantly to the production time. So, the question of the hour is......who ordered the berms built? The general contractor? Hardly likely. The borrower's engineer? Not if he wanted an endorsement for future work. Then, who? The city engineer? Hummm. The berms don't add anything to the project. They should be part of the final landscape, anyway. With a little break in the weather, framing should start soon......say, a couple of weeks. Got to pour the approach soon. Then, rain will be less of a problem. Rowlett really needs this project. It will be a great addition to the city and the neighborhood.........in spite of what some think.
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Very pleased to see the "restart" of the assisted living project on Chiesa Road. Substantially more grading and forming has been done. Some lanes/parking are now ready for steel.
One of the things I never did understand was the grading of "berms" around the project. Essentially, a lake was built during the recent rainy season. After a heavy rain (which we've had much of), the moisture was retained on the project because it's drainage was impaired by berms. Therefore, this project dried out much slower than normal. Of course, that played havoc with setting reinforcing steel and final grading of parking and fire lanes. Understandably, that compounded the problem of concrete delivery. With concrete in short supply, there is a two week lead time on delivery. If you miss that delivery because you are not ready for the trucks, you get placed back in line for another two weeks. A couple of missed concrete delivery dates because the forms and steel weren't ready, because it was too wet, because of the berms, can add significantly to the production time. So, the question of the hour is......who ordered the berms built? The general contractor? Hardly likely. The borrower's engineer? Not if he wanted an endorsement for future work. Then, who? The city engineer? Hummm. The berms don't add anything to the project. They should be part of the final landscape, anyway. With a little break in the weather, framing should start soon......say, a couple of weeks. Got to pour the approach soon. Then, rain will be less of a problem. Rowlett really needs this project. It will be a great addition to the city and the neighborhood.........in spite of what some think.
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