S curves
Why would they install gas lights -- 0% of the Res. is in S.O., and anyway it's a county road.
they look good, but yes, it looks like they are coasting to the finish line. No big hurry.
They are not gas lights, but lights in the style of South Orange's gas lights. It is a nice touch and continues the look from South Orange into the reservation.
We drove through the s turns late last night. The road was wider, and it was well lit by the new lamps. I don't like the fake rock walls. Hopefully, they will be hidden by vines and other vegetation in a couple of years. The s turns are still there, as sharp as ever, as far as I could tell, and you still have to be cautious when you come downhill towards the village center. What worries me is that people will come down that hill too fast now, because of the wider road through the reservation.
I think the lights and landscaping and the walls are so incredibly overdone. It's not downtown South Orange. You don't need lights every 30 feet. And are the Ss that much less curvy? Seems like a monumental waste of money to me.
jeffl said:
I think the lights and landscaping and the walls are so incredibly overdone. It's not downtown South Orange. You don't need lights every 30 feet. And are the Ss that much less curvy? Seems like a monumental waste of money to me.
It was a drainage, not a straightening, project.
The lights are a safety factor, by outlining the road shape at night they make it much easier to see the curves and stay in lane.
The landscaping is brand new and will take time to grow in.
The wall design was a lose-lose. Plain concrete would have been uglier by far. Anything short of fieldstone would have been criticized as cheesy. Fieldstone would have been fantastically expensive.
The banking of the curves was reversed in some spots, this has been corrected, but there was no plan in the final design for straightening, which would have been much more destructive to the park.
max_weisenfeld said:
...The wall design was a lose-lose. Plain concrete would have been uglier by far. Anything short of fieldstone would have been criticized as cheesy. Fieldstone would have been fantastically expensive.
I've seen much better faux stone walls - the 405 Freeway at Sepulvada pass comes to mind - near the Getty Center.
They look similar, just aged. Fresh concrete looks like, well, fresh concrete.
Not to my eye.
Where the S curve walls fail is at the "seams" between the panels. No obvious panels in the picture you posted - much more natural looking.
Of course, but they'll still be there and be very visible and unnatural-looking.
It is what it is - just saying there are better examples.
lizziecat, people already come down the hill too fast. I live on the hill, and over the years there have been any number of times that cars skid off SO Ave knocking over street signs. Some crashes have been really bad. And that is after the lights at Crestview and Wyoming.
Anyone know why they eliminated one of the eastbound lanes in the section up on the top of the hill? I'm pretty sure that it wasn't like that before.
You could do adequate lighting without expensive "gas lights" every ten yards. There are trees planted in front of beautiful trees. The faux stone walls just look like bad taste. Oh well. To each his own.
max_weisenfeld said:
The lights are a safety factor, by outlining the road shape at night they make it much easier to see the curves and stay in lane.
The landscaping is brand new and will take time to grow in.
The wall design was a lose-lose. Plain concrete would have been uglier by far. Anything short of fieldstone would have been criticized as cheesy. Fieldstone would have been fantastically expensive.
The banking of the curves was reversed in some spots, this has been corrected, but there was no plan in the final design for straightening, which would have been much more destructive to the park.
jimmurphy said:
Not to my eye.
Where the S curve walls fail is at the "seams" between the panels. No obvious panels in the picture you posted - much more natural looking.
This is such a good point. I actually will go way out of my way to avoid the S-curves now because the visible seams disturb me so much. For the taxes we pay, surely we could do better.
I believe the S curve improvements were funded with federal money not state or county.. cold comfort but much less direct. Regardless Are they done?
tjohn said:
jimmurphy said:
Not to my eye.
Where the S curve walls fail is at the "seams" between the panels. No obvious panels in the picture you posted - much more natural looking.
This is such a good point. I actually will go way out of my way to avoid the S-curves now because the visible seams disturb me so much. For the taxes we pay, surely we could do better.
I hope the drainage problems are a thing of the past. Faux stone walls don't look nearly as bad as some make them sound and over time most won't notice (the seams will blend in with the dirt and plantings) and the extra light will be appreciated by anyone driving at night/inclement weather.
I really can't believe all the whining about such trivial stuff.
What's with the weird stone things along the side -- like mini stone walls with a gap of 10 feet between each -- those rocks in wire cages?
SuzanneNg said:
What's with the weird stone things along the side -- like mini stone walls with a gap of 10 feet between each -- those rocks in wire cages?
I have assumed that those are drainage pits.
SuzanneNg said:
What's with the weird stone things along the side -- like mini stone walls with a gap of 10 feet between each -- those rocks in wire cages?
Those are MSO approved free range rocks from Whole Foods. If they aren't kept in cages - there is some controversy about the ethics of this - they will run off.
jeffl said:
Anyone know the total cost of the project?
25 million for the contractor. 1.6 million for design. Add project management, etc and the total budget is 30 million
tjohn said:
This is such a good point. I actually will go way out of my way to avoid the S-curves now because the visible seams disturb me so much. For the taxes we pay, surely we could do better.
Sarcasm noted. My point was that if you're gonna do the faux stone, do it well. If you're not gonna do it well, just put up a concrete wall and save the money.
Give it two - three weeks and the spray paint graffiti will hide those ugly seems.
It wasn't closed even once this past winter, even when we had the blizzard. I can live with the ugly walls (the alternative isn't too appealing.)
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I dont think they are done yet with construction, some of the old lights are still there and some gas lights look yet to be installed. Does anyone know the facts?