What's with the Tent?

Glad you asked!

It's the road!  They are laying the belgian block for the roadway!

They laid the sub-base of concrete over the past few weeks, now they are covering that with sand and setting the stones in it.  It's good to see our old stone again after its vacation to the warehouse and its cleaning!

The tent is to protect the workers and the work area from the rain, snow, wind, cold, and whatever else nature decides to drop on us.  As they lay the block they will move the tent around the Square.

This is how they are laying the granite curb. 

Heavy machines do the lifting, people manage the placement and small adjustments based on previously set guide wires and boards to ensure perfect placement.  Go check out the new curb to see how wide the new sidewalk area will be.  The weather is so mild compared to the way we started the year you almost wish the street cafes were already there!

If you haven't been to the Square since it was covered in snow, you should go see.  It's really starting to look the Square as we'll be using it (instead of imaging how high the ground will be based on manholes and fire hydrants!).

After the belgian block work, the crew will begin on the sidewalk.  Most of the sidewalks will remain as they are with an extension added to the material already in use but the PPG sidewalk needs to be re-graded to that the angle matches that of the rest of the Square.  They also hooked up the electric utilities on Friday so once the light pole shipment arrives and the brickwork by PPG is completed, we'll be able to switch from the string of temporary lights to the real lamp posts. 

We're getting there folks!

PS I'd like to point out that thanks to one of our previous commenters, I can now tell the difference between cement and concrete. Cement is an element in concrete, but the final mixture that gets laid is concrete. The stuff you will see when you visit the Square today is concrete. Thanks to our commenter for the education!