Planting

Your correspondent apologizes for missing the planting. He got wrapped up in his next project, and by the time he emerged from the haze, it was dark  outside.  All images here are due to Larnie, which explains the fact that while he was there, he appears in none of them.

We start with the project as it was last week - a strange Stonehenge-like object suddenly appeared on the Green at the end of 2nd Street.

First priority, access for the operations to come.

Next, a small army of workers shows up.

Cutting the sod - the basis for cleaning water

Laying down the plastic and metal web - the base for the sod.

Placing the cut sod on the plastic and metal web..

Your mayor takes a hand in the project...

Workers on a cold day...

Laying sod according to plan.....

Above all - Don't get him angry.....

Laying out the sod in the maze pattern...

Happy worker...

This reminded me more than anything else of a quilting bee...

Sod placement approaches conclusion....

Pinning the sod down to hold it in place...

The master admires his work...

Watering the sod. Making sure the water runs in the right direction

The finished planting - a sod maze...

And last, an explanation for the curious - what this mysterious object is and does...

City of Benicia Adaptation Plan

The City of Benicia was awarded a $150,000 Coastal Conservancy Climate Ready Grant to conduct a climate change vulnerability assessment and develop an Adaptation Plan. With input from local, regional,and state agencies as well as the community, including Arts Benicia, we decided to assess how sea level rise, flooding, and increased temperatures will be exacerbated by climate change. To do this, we first collected information about existing conditions in the City. For example, we know that E. 2nd Street floods during a storm event and a high tide. Then, we used global climate models to determine how these existing conditions might change over time as a result of our climate warming. We assessed impacts in 2050 and 2100. Now that we better understand what the local impacts and risks are in Benicia, we are developing strategies to reduce those risks and create a more resilient community.

Benicia State Recreation Area during a King Tide, 1/20 @ 12:44pm. 
King Tide could be daily tide by year 2050.

Have a picture of a King Tide? Send it to yess@kingtides.net with a description of your location. Post it to social media with #Kingtides

For example, one possible adaptation strategy is to increase the number of rain gardens in the City. Raingardens, like the Bio-labyrinth Raingarden being built by Artist Mark Brest van Kempen, can help reduce stormwater run-off and pollution in nearby water bodies. Why is this important? The Existing Conditions Report shows that flooding is already an issue in Benicia and as tide levels increase, it will get worse.

During a storm, water runs off impervious surfaces like roofs, driveways, and parking lots and goes into the stormwater system - a combination of storm drains and pipes. If the storm occurs during a high tide or King Tide (http://california.kingtides.net/), the stormwater has no place to go since it is met by tide water that has inundated the stormwater inlets. If there is low tide, then the stormwater follows gravity down through the drains and pipes and out to the Carquinez Straight. One way to reduce flooding is to lessen the amount of stormwater that makes its way to the system. Rain gardens can absorb this run-off and help reduce flooding!

We have begun to develop adaptation strategies, but we still need your input! We want the strategies
and our final plan to be realistic for Benicia residents and help prepare everyone for existing and future events.

You can give us your feedback online by going to

 http://www.peakdemocracy.com/portals/203/Forum_566/Issue_2343.

If you need help or have questions, please contact Alex Porteshawver, consulting Climate Action Plan Coordinator for the City. She can be reached at 707.746.4276 or

aporteshawver@ci.benicia.ca.us.

On - To the Green

We've done as much as we can on the structure without going to the actual point where it has to be built. Accordingly, we must now undertake the coordinated effort to move each of the pieces of the project from the caboose to the green at the base of 2nd street where it will be assembled.

Torquing Cable Down

We were to start at 11 a.m. At the caboose.  Fully charged with a café au lait, your correspondent showed up at the caboose at about 11:15. By this time I found that half of the major pieces were already mounted on a variety of pickup trucks. It seems all real artists have pickup trucks and apparently half of the pickups in Benicia were present at the caboose. People were practicing tying large objects to the rear beds of their trucks. A variety of approaches as to tying pieces of the project on the each of the trucks were evident.

Making Absolutely Certain

Once everything was firmly tied down I have to race people to get dramatic pictures of pieces of the project of arriving at the Second Street green. I did get pictures but I'm not sure if they were dramatic.

Parade of Cabinetry

Once all of our transfer vehicles were lined up on the Green it was time to take off all of the pieces of the project and assemble them on the green.

Many hands...

Assembly of the long outflow section was made easier by the fact that Mark had taken the precaution of numbering the outflow sections appropriately, so that the outflow section pieces dropped down three quarters of an inch per section.

Checking the pipe

Outflow intact!

The round main section was a more delicate task. For it to work all of the segments of the circular section had to be roughly the same height. The Festival of assembly began.

Festival of Shimming

Once the assembly of the structure of the circular section was complete, the most delicate task, that of putting a skirt on the circular section, began. This skirt was made in square pieces each of which had to match perfectly with the last in order for the skirt to fit.

I cannot believe this worked...

After a good deal of slipping and shifting of pieces back-and-forth we finally had a skirt on the main section and our international orange straight section was extending out roughly to the East.  No astronomical alignment was performed, although it would lend a neat Stonehenge-like aura.

We are not lined up with anything, but I bet there will be a lot of theories

Of course, the reward for all our efforts, pizze, one of which was fashionably gluten-free.

Larnie Delivers...

All that remained was the painting of the skirt of the main section, installation of the actual plastic lining of the Maze which would hold the plants to clean water, and, of course, installation of the plants themselves

More about that next time...

International Orange: Painting the Outflow and Setting the Drain Lines

After the long Holiday pause, we're finally restarting the effort.   Mark has thought about it and decided that international orange, the color of our Golden Gate Bridge Will be the most appropriate card for our a project. Accordingly when I arrive at the caboose, Mark has started painting the outflow supports of the project in an, at first, startling orange/red color. The longer you look at it, the better it looks and the more appropriate for the Bay Area.

The most delicate part of this phase is setting the outflow pipe into the wood containers in such a way as water will continuously flow downhill through the pipes.


Mark gets out of his measuring tape and I get out my calculator. We start computing how much the pipe should drop in each section of outflow support. Three quarters of an inch proves to be the appropriate drop per section and Mark takes out his amazing sawzall which apparently can saw through refrigerators cars but in this case only need saw through wood. He gets busy and and a surprisingly short time he has cut the needed slots into the wood outfall support sections.

The amazing, somewhat frightening, sawzall

Measure -um- twice

Cut once

Once the supports have been cut the next thing is to finish painting them the international orange color.  Again, many hands make short work and the outflow sections, along with hands, brushes, and large swipes of clothing are soon the increasingly familiar color.


Scenes from the project: