Hargraves Street

Tools down, 1st March 2018

I never seem to get to the Hargraves Street site until tools have been downed for the day. It’s so tucked away, off Kendall Street near the corner of Faunce Street West, and it’s a narrow one-way street too, so it’s practically invisible.
(There is nothing I can do about any strange gaps or tiny text, etc. on this page today. Blogger/blogspot is playing up again.)

The cage of foundations is moving along, 1st March 2018

At the front of the site, clearing continues. Meanwhile, the border foundations and walls have gone up at the back.

The steepest site in Gosford so far, 1st March 2018

The Hargraves Street site is the steepest building site in Gosford. It doesn’t look as steep in this photo as it does in real life. As well as being very steep, it’s also a rather awkward street to get machinery into and spoil out of and it will only get worse for the worker when the foundations go in and the building starts to rise.

According to its sign, it’s going to be another 7-storey apartment block and called ‘Skye’ like its twin immediately to the left of the site. That doesn’t sound very impressive compared to the mighty 15 storeys of the Bonython Tower on Mann Street or the double tower planned on the old Union Hotel site. But extra height is well and truly provided, to get those views, by the site being high up on the hillside of Presidents Hill (Waterview Park on many maps).

The views from Skye Part 2 will be east across Gosford to the wooded ridge of Rumbalara Reserve and north along the lovely Narara Valley. (Gosford sits at the mouth of the Narara Valley.)

Old steps up to an old house, 1st March 2028

Old garden wall of an old house, 1st March 2018

Old steps leading up to an old house, from the 1920’s – 1940’s judging by the stone used, and the old garden wall behind a lot of bits and bobs on the edge of the site.

Big old interlocking blocks of concrete, 1st March 2018

Big old blocks of concrete found on the site, with their crosses on top locking them together and their iron loops for the crane’s hook.

Small earthmover in the left background, pile-driver (I think) in the middle, 1st March 2018

Yellow pile-driver in front and a little earthmover behind.

Scoopers large & small, 1st March 2018

Scoopers large and small work day after day to clear sites of spoil and load it into trucks to be taken away. On sloping sites, there is so much more spoil to be shifted than on level ones.


I’ll come back to this site in a couple of weeks, due to the amount of spoil still to be removed. See you then, gentlemen.


 Extra

I am slowly but surely putting together a list of all the locally owned businesses and locally made goods on the NSW Central Coast. Listings are free and will go online, on this website and on Locally Owned Locally Made Gosford.

By 'locally' I mean living locally, on the NSW Central Coast, if you are a tradie or business owner and made locally if you are supplying goods and/or services.

If you are a local tradie, local business owner, or supplier of locally made goods, please email me your business contact details to be included in my free listings. The only catch is that it's for LOCALS ONLY.

Fielder Street West Gosford

Orange clay at Fielder Street site, 5th February 2018

The Fielder Street site in West Gosford, after years of weed-strewn idleness, has been cleared at last. Spoil has been dug out, exposing the lovely orange clay and strange spots of it in amongst the layer of white clay below it. And, if those re-bars sticking out of the soil (bottom of clay cut) are anything to go by, some boundary foundation piles have been poured too.

(I couldn't make the text the usual size or make the strange gaps go away. There is still something wrong with Blogger/blogspot.)

Tidying up around the edges, 5th February 2018

Frames for foundation pylons, 5th February 2018

Neatening up around the edges of the cage goes on, even as more foundation pillar frames are made.

Getting on with it, 5th February 2018

Over on the eastern edge of the site, preparation for concrete pours was in full swing, with lumber being sorted through and cut to size.

What on earth is she doing? 5th February 2018

This being a newly active site, my photography provoked the usual surprise, followed by the usual appreciation of being appreciated for work done and being done.

Is this a pump or an extractor? 5th February 2018

Gentlemen, I didn’t see this beast in action. Is it a pump or an extractor or does it do both at need?

Scoopers at rest for a moment, 5th February 2018

An idle moment as two spoil scoopers await directions. In the background, on the right edge of this photo, we can see the active site on the corner of Batley Street and Donnison Street West.

Lunchtime for all good machinery operators, 5th February 2018

 
In the background of this photo, we can see three blocks of units. The one on the left edge of the photo is a brand new build, finished just a few months ago and full of residents. The one in the middle background is still not quite finished inside, I think. It’s been such a slow site, at times, I haven’t checked up on it for a month. The one on the right is a few decades old, from the 1970’s or 1980’s.

There was a building boom in Gosford and around the Brisbane Water estuary in the 1970’s and there has been a steady trickle of new buildings, commercial and residential, ever since, with small blocks of units going up in the backstreets every now and then during that time.

Now we’ve come to another major building boom, the one of 2018’s Gosford tower blocks and smaller towers around the edges of Gosford. This one is going to make huge changes to the Gosford skyline.


 Extra

I am slowly but surely putting together a list of all the locally owned businesses and locally made goods on the NSW Central Coast. Listings are free and will go online, on this website and on Locally Owned Locally Made Gosford.

By 'locally' I mean living locally, on the NSW Central Coast, if you are a tradie or business owner and made locally if you are supplying goods and/or services.

If you are a local tradie, local business owner, or supplier of locally made goods, please email me your business contact details to be included in my free listings. The only catch is that it's for LOCALS ONLY.