Christmas hiatus

Christmas market in a European town

It turns out my little chundering episode a few weeks back was just the start of a long bout of stomach trouble. Nothing too serious, just very painful and needing bed rest. I'll be back in the new year.

Meanwhile, the local free newspapers usually have the names of the streets of houses covered in Christmas lights and they're always worth a look. The newspapers are on the rack outside Woolies in the Imperial Centre on the corner of Mann Street and Erina Street Gosford.

A merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

Clifton Mill Ohio

'Vue' & 'Icon' on Kendall Street

I haven’t forgotten you (or any other site). I’m having tummy trouble again this afternoon. I’ll put up this week’s photos of your sites next week. Good luck with the weather.

Singo's tower AKA 'Bonython Tower'

Making sure, December 2017

It never hurts to check twice.

Fresh materials stacked up all over the site, December 2017

Shop assistants and office workers eating their lunch in Kibble Park get plenty of entertainment watching the delivery trucks going in and out of Paul Lane and the long arm of the big yellow crane swinging back and forth across the site craning fresh stacks of materials to every part of the site.

A quick pose then back to work, December 2017

A quick pose for the camera from these workers at the Paul Lane end of the site and then it was back to work.

Access stairs on the 'Bonython Tower' site, December

Access stairs for the workers keeping pace as the building rises up. It won’t be long now, just a couple of months perhaps, before the site and the stairs rise up to the level of the rooftop carpark of the Imperial Centre.

Workers workers everywhere, December 2017

The site swarming with workers as usual. This site and a few others around Gosford are fast.

There are a few sites going slow at the moment due to steep slopes (‘Icon’ on Kendall Street, ‘Skye’ in Hargraves Street) or having to dig great pits down through sandstone to lay the foundations (‘Harbour View’ on Wilhelmina Street) but they should speed up once that’s over. Only one or two sites around Gosford are very slow, usually due to factors like asbestos removal.

The whole of the site, December 2017

I didn’t forget my whole site photo. I just put it at the end for a change.

Mystery object, December 2017

Oh, and what is this big yellow tube? Will it be part of the air-conditioning? A rubbish chute? Or is it packaging that will have to be craned away? No matter how long I stare at it, I can’t work it out.

My offer of a free digital copy of a photo of taken of yourself at work on site stands. Ask for something like: “4^th photo down at https://changinggosford.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/singos-tower-aka-bonython-tower_15.html”. Here’s my email address:

Hail VS concrete pour at 'Harbour View' site

De-pitting the hail-pitted pour at Wilhelmina Street, December 2017

There was some hail last week, not huge hail but about the size of small grapes so it was big enough. I was inside a shopping centre when it fell so I didn’t notice it.

Then I went to the ‘Harbour View’ site at Wilhelmina Street. They’d certainly noticed the hail. They’d been finishing up for the day when it hit and it pitted the surface of the freshly poured concrete so they had to stay an extra hour and smooth the concrete out again.

De-pitting machine up close, December 2017

The de-pitting machine up close. I'm told the operator walks behind it, swinging it from side to side as he or she goes.

More hail on the way, December 2017

I took some photos of their work re-smoothing the surface of the concrete, took a photo of how black the sky still was and left for home, just as it started to sprinkle again. I was just a few minutes from the newly re-smoothed concrete pour when the hail came again. It came down fast and hard and I thought ‘I hope it doesn’t mark my car’. Then I realised it would hit that re-smoothed concrete again and those poor workers back there would be re-re-smoothing concrete for another hour or two.

Bonython Tower AKA Singo's tower

Bonython Tower site swarming with workers, December 2017

Swarming with workers as busy as bees, December 2017

Yesterday morning, the Singo site was crawling with workers. It often is, with tradies and contractors coming and going in waves sccording to what stage the construction is at on any given week or day.

There are a lot of photos today and too many good ones to cut the number down so today will be more pictures than words.

Crane operator placing drop zone markers, December 2017

The crane operator does not spend his whole day away up there in the sky. He gets plenty of exercise climbing down that long ladder to load delivered materials onto the hook part of his crane and then, as you can see below, using his box controller, worn on his body on a harness, to guide the materials safely across the site and into a handy spot for the construction workers to take them off the stack as they need them.

In this photo, the crane operator is placing markers for a drop zone onto which to place his next load of materials.

Crane operator controlling and lifting stack of materials, December 2017 

The crane operator lifting the materials off the back of a delivery truck. You can just see the box controller under his right hand.

That same stack of materials travelling slowly and safely across the site, December 2017

The materials in motion across the site, guided by the crane operator using the box controller down on the site.

Guiding the stack of materials down onto the drop zone he made earlier, December 2017

As well as securing the materials onto the hook from the back of the delivery truck and sending them across the site, he has to climb up onto the site itself and guide them down to the drop zone he's made for them.

Yellow lifting cages stacked neatly out of the workers' way, December 2017

And he has to keep moving his big yellow baskets and other bits of lifting gear to new spots around the site, as the tide of work washes back and forth across the site.

Good old-fashioned muscle is still needed for some lifts, December 2017

Not everything is lifted by crane of course. Here good old-fashioned hand hoisting is on display in the loading bay.

There's always work for good old-fashioned hammers too, December 2017

And there's always work on every site for tools that need no re-charging or plugging in.

Stairwell on the north-eastern corner of the site, December 2017

These stairs at the north-eastern corner of the site keeping pace with the floors as they go up.


 Extra 

This photo and the ones below were too good to leave out so here they are.

Incidentally, tradies, contractors, site managers and other workers on the sites on my blog, if you want a copy of a photo with you in it, email me and I'll send you a digital copy to print at home or at a photo shop.

Come back next week for more on the big building sites around Gosford and watch your apartment being built or grow green with envy as someone else's does.

Crane Count (8th December 2017)

4 cranes visible, looking west from the Singo site, 8th December 2017

Two days ago, on Thursday 7th of December 2017, there were 5 cranes soaring over the Gosford skyline.

Yesterday, Friday 8th of December 2017, there were 7 cranes soaring over it. Gosford's building boom is booming harder.

The cranes:

1. Singo's tower AKA 'Bonython Tower', Mann Street Gosford
2. West Gosford, exact location not yet pinpointed
3. 'Harbour View' site, Wilhelmina Street West Gosford
4. 'Vue' site, Kendall Street Gosford
5. (below) on the site behind the ATO site, Mann Street (southern end) Gosford
6. (below) one of sites on Gosford Hospital gounds
7. (below) site on the corner of Hills Street & Beane Street East Gosford

Singo site crane's hook foreground, ATO site's crane background, 8th December 2017

'Bonython Tower' crane in the foreground (crane #1) and, in the background, crane #5 on the site behind the ATO site in Mann Street Gosford, opposite the Reviver bar. ATO is short for Australian Tax Office.

Gosford Hospital site crane (#6), Hills Street crane (#7), tiled roof between is Hotel Gosford, 8th December 2017

Slim black crane (#6), small in comparison to the big yellow ones, on one of the several construction sites on the grounds of Gosford Hospital.

There's a bit of confusion on the streets of Gosford about the "new" hospital. Some people haven't yet realised the "new hospital" actually refers to new buildings on the site of the Gosford Hospital, not to a new hospital altogether. There are only two hospitals in Gosford: the big public one near the golf course and the small private one in North Gosford next to the old Bradys Gully cemetery.

Crane #7 is on a small site at the corner of Watt Street and Beane Street East in Gosford. It's another sloping site, as are so many of the apartment sites around Gosford, but is going ahead great guns.

Stay tuned for today's second page in a few minutes time: 'Bonython Tower' AKA Singo's tower.

Wilhelmina Street

The big sandstone hole of the Harbour View site, December 2017

Wilhelmina Street is a quiet little street in residential West Gosford. It’s also very steep and certain parts of it has good views of the Brisbane Water, including the little-known part called Fagans Bay. (Locals, I mean Fagans Bay not Phegans Bay.)

Perched in one of those view spots, on the corner of Batley Street, is the Harbour View building site. At this stage, as digging down through all that sandstone still goes on, it’s more of an excavation site. But once the site is bottom level of the ground has been fully prepared, the building can start its climb towards the sky.

Earthmover at work at the bottom, December 2017

We can see here what looks like the bottom level of the site being graded or perhaps the spoil piled up ready to be taken away.

In the background and in the bottom right corner, we can see the yellow caps on the tops of the poured foundation pylons. Also in the background, at the top edge of the photo, we can see a beautiful rich patch of sandstone in the sandstone cliff that forms the eastern wall of this site. It’s a shame such a beautiful colour will be covered up but it’s unavoidable, of course.

Breaking up the hard stuff, December 2017

Meanwhile, over at the western wall of the site, breaking up hard ground is hard to do, unless you have the right machine.

That’s the north wall in the background and I stood atop the cliff that is the southern wall to take this photo.

Two sites for the price of one in this photo, December 2017

On the left side of this photo, in the upper half, we can see the top half of Batley Street and the blue clad building site on the corner of Batley Street and Donnison Street West. The houses behind the back fence of the site, the northern side, run along Donnison Street West and there are houses opposite them and then the trees we can see along the top edge of the photo are on the steep slope of Presidents Hill. There’s a lookout (US, an overlook) at the top of Presidents Hill, with a lovely long view down the length of Brisbane Water. So far, I haven’t found a viewpoint up there that overlooks Gosford itself.

(The lookout is at the end of Hely Street.)


Toay's other pages:

Batley Street

No Activity

Come back on Friday afternoon for another post.

Batley Street

Directing traffic, corner of Batley Street and Donnison Street East, December 2017

Lollipop man keeping workers, drivers and pedestrians safe with the road half blocked by the concrete pour. Donnison Street West is a fairly narrow backstreet so having active building sites on it is tricky. Luckily, not much traffic uses it, mostly residents and those hungry for hot chips at the Red Rooster in Hely Street.

Pouring concrete up high at Batley Street, December 2017

Two yellow concrete trucks and the white truck that transports and anchors the big mobile concrete-pourer arm. The pourer arm soaring up to the top of the building and looping down to pour the concrete where it's needed.

Guiding the nozzle to the right spot, December 2017

The worker on the right is using the hand-held controls to guide the pouring nozzle at the end of the pouring arm to just the right spot for an even concrete pour. As he was doing that, it started to sprinkle with rain again so I hope the pour went well.

Industrial West Gosford in the distance, residential West Gosford in the foreground, December 2017

Follow the wet grey line of Donnison Street West through the photo to where it stops. Just beyond that, we can see a lot of white buildings running across the photo and back to the edge of the building site. Those white buildings are along Manns Road which is also in West Gosford, just as this building site is. West Gosford’s small residential area runs from Riou Street, beside the railway line, to Racecourse Road. The rest is commercial (from the racecourse to the southern end of Manns Road) and light industrial stretching the length of Manns Road. Beyond Manns Road is Kariong and the long tree-covered ridge that stretches down the western side of the Brisbane Water to Woy Woy, fringed by the narrow suburbs of Point Clare, Tascott and Koolewong.

(To avoid confusing industrial Manns Road with the shops and pubs of Mann Street, just remember that “Mann Street is main street”.)


 Extra

West Gosford's changing skyline from Fagans Bay, December 2017

The changing skyline of West Gosford, from Fagans Bay.

Above the blue mesh of the Batley Street building site, locals may recognise the top half of that strange house known locally as “the Castle”. In the middle of the photo is the yellow crane on the Harbour View site in Wilhelmina Street. The yellow crane on the right is on the Vue site in Kendall Street.

No Activity

Mann Street between police station & Telstra building, December 2017

Still nothing happening on this steep narrow site beside the police station on Mann Street. I remember seeing a scaffolding tower on this site several months ago but I can’t tell you which month. Not long after that, the site was cleared but, as we can see in this photo, nothing has happened since then.

Henry Parry Drive, overlooking the water, December 2017

This site has been inactive for years. I think it may even be as long as 10 years since it was cleared. Does anyone know exactly what year it was cleared?

The site is on Henry Parry Drive and has a good view of Brisbane Water and may also have a view into Caroline Bay so it must be worth a fortune. So why is there such a long delay?

Singo Site AKA Bonython Tower

The whole of the site from the rooftop of the Imperial Centre, on this hot and sticky 1^st day of summer.

Lifting scaffolding railings into place on the northern side of the Singo site, in what was a half-circle cavity in the 1^st floor (US 2^nd floor).

South wall (upper of these two photos) and north wall (lower) of the site being built. The building can’t just rest against the buildings on each side of it.

11 power-points on one power-board! That’s more power tools at once than most of us will ever need at home.

That round grey thing is water storage tank and the yellow and blue piece of equipment looks like a generator. There’s been a little bit of rain over the past week, a few light showers, and the forecast is for a lot more rain over the next few days and there’s no way to keep rain out of a building site at this stage of construction.

Sky high office. Crane operators have a long long ladder to climb to get to their office but what a view from the top! All 4 of the cranes up in Gosford this week would have a lovely view of the water and most would also have some views north along the Narara Valley, east towards the Tasman Sea and west into the eucalyptus forests of the national park and state forests.

When I was taking this photo today, I met the parents of a crane operator. I would love some feedback from him and other crane operators about the ins and outs of working up there in the sky. A few photos from up there wouldn’t hurt either!

 Extra 

3 of the 4 cranes currently up on Gosford’s many building sites. Taken from Gosford Wharf earlier this week on a rainy grey day.

Come back next week for more on the Bonython Tower, Kendall Streets sites and other sites around Gosford.