North Adams Kiosk Relocation

6/28/15--How do you move a Kiosk?

You get a really big tractor.  Joshua Moran, a North Adams resident who is organizing the North Adams application to ATC's AT Community program organized a small crew (and a really big forklift) from Maxymillian, a local construction company.

The Kiosk's former location was well off the trail and not easily seen by hikers and local community members.  Joshua secured a site on the grounds of Mount Greylock Elementary School, which also happens to be right on the A.T. as it enters North Adams from the south.  

On a rainy Sunday morning, Joshua with Jim and Don from Maxymillian uprooted the kiosk from it's original location and trundled it to its new one.

Easing it out of the ground

Ready for transport, operator Don will drive his rig in reverse for better visibility

With a left turn onto Phelps Ave, the kiosk is officially on the AT.

With Mt Williams looming to the south the kiosk is almost home

Interestingly, as we were setting the thing into place, ultra-runner Scott Jureck (attempting to set a speed record on the A.T.) was passing through, headed to Vermont.

Jureck (in dark jacket, center) 

Scott checks out our work before heading north

Lowering into place

Braced and ready for concrete to be poured around the bases

Joshua makes a last minute check before the concrete arrives.
This view is northbound on the Trail

New Culvert for UGPC Access

June 27, 2015  DPW on the AT

Jim, Pete, Dave and Cosmo  (with a lot of help from Trail neighbor Jim Morawiec and his tractor) replaced the broken culvert on the UGPC caretaker access road yesterday.  Earlier in the same day Pete and neighbor Jim installed a drive-over water bar further up the slope.  Hopefully this will limit some of the erosion on this section of road.

Dan and Pete pull out the old pieces.

Getting the old culvert out proved to be fairly simple.  It was not a very heavy piece of pipe, in fact, it appeared to be part of an old water heater.







Once the old culvert was removed, we dug out a wider trench to make room for the new pipe.  This pipe was donated by DCR.












The new pipe was laid on a gravel bed, and pitched downhill slightly.

Jim sets the bottom bed of gravel

The right way to move gravel

After the pipe was set correctly, more gravel was dumped on top and alongside to hold it firmly in place.   Trail neighbor Jim, brought his tractor out to play, so transporting the 10 tons of gravel for this project was not such a chore

Gravel was mounded up slightly to provide as much protection for the pipe as possible.  Please drive slowly over this repair until things settle in.

Pete and Dan set the final contours

Successful Load Test