Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - Dawson Road is Open to 2-Way Traffic

Good morning.

At 4:20 pm, Monday, November 8, the crew moved the pylons to the side of Dawson Road in front of our shop, Plants For All, at 66 Dawson Road.  With that, Dawson Road was opened to 2-way traffic.  That indeed is good news.

Earlier in the afternoon the white lines for the bicycle lanes were painted and the yellow centre line was painted.

There is still some top coat paving to be done in the access ways to the businesses and the landscaping still needs to be done. So please, continue to watch for the construction crew.

Dawson Road is Open for Business, so Come on Down!  And with that, this blog is finished.

Brian Osmond

Plants For All
visit my plant blog at http://plantsforallblog.blogspot.com

Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - This is the Last Post of Dawson Road Today

Good Wednesday morning and welcome back to Dawson Road Today! Today is the last day that I will be making regular posts to this blog, Dawson Road Today and it represents the 118th post since the blog was started in late May.

Yesterday the number of crew members on site was light. Many of the crew members and equipment that were originally working on the Dawson Road reconstruction project have been reassigned to the Edinburgh Road reconstruction project. No doubt, this has contributed somewhat to the Dawson Road project running past a completion date of September 30. Subcontractor, Stacey Electric, was on site down at the Speedvale Avenue end of Dawson Road. One of the metal poles that held the walk sign on the west side of Dawson Road had to be relocated a few feet, as can be seen in this picture.Stacey Electric will be doing the actual electrical reconnection.

The Dawson Road reconstruction project is very close to being completed. Dawson Road between Shelldale and Speedvale Avenue has been fully reconstructed. The water mains and sanitary sewers have been completely replaced. A new storm sewer system has been installed to replace the old roadside ditch and culvert system. We now have curbs and gutters and sidewalks along both the East and West sides of Dawson Road. Either already complete or still in the works are adjustments to third-party utility services including Hydro, telephone, cable, fiber wire and natural gas. A lot of work is now complete.

Work yet to be completed includes marking the new road surface with lane and bicycle lane lines. This work will likely be done this week weather permitting. We will have a bicycle lane on either side of Dawson Road. The access ways to business parking lots need to be graded and paved. This work will be subcontracted out. The final landscaping and grading from the curbs to the business property lines needs to be finished and this work will be subcontracted out. This will include the installation of several trees along each side of Dawson Road.

November 2, 2010

May 18, 2010

The following two pictures show Dawson Road as it was back in May shortly after the blog was started and Dawson Road as it appears as of yesterday afternoon.

Because this blog will not be maintained after today and because the construction work is not yet complete, I have created a dedicated Dawson Road Today page on my new plant blog, to which I'll post significant updates as they happen, until the completion of the project. You can get the latest status of Dawson Road Today at http://plantsforallblog.blogspot.com

Actual work on the Dawson road reconstruction project started on April 16 with Guelph Hydro on site. I started this blog in late May and posted every weekday, excluding holiday Mondays, until today. The purpose of the blog was to positively report on the status of the reconstruction project as a service to customers of the businesses of Dawson Road and to support and promote any Dawson Road businesses that wanted to be involved. On a personal note, I wanted to learn how to do a blog. Now after 118 posts, with an average of three hours per post in research and preparation, it is time to draw it to a close.

This has been a very positive experience for me in that I've made friendships with a lot of new people, learned a lot about construction, learned more about blogging and computer interaction on the Internet and made a lot of new contacts. On the downside, the extended disruption to easy access to the businesses of Dawson Road has been devastating to those businesses catering to the day-to-day retail trade. Even though I know of businesses, around the city, that have been forced out of business due to construction, I believe that all of the businesses on Dawson Road have managed to stay open. I respectfully ask that all consumers consider shopping with the businesses on Dawson Road. We are open and now have a beautiful new road with easy access.

As of the time this post is being published, I have had 2426 page views. I am very pleased with that and thank all those who have continued to read. I've received several supportive comments, e-mails, phone calls and personal communications and I'm grateful for that.

All of the posts in this blog have been prepared using Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software. That is another thing that I wanted to learn how to use. I don't think that it allowed me to get done any faster; but I think it made the words flow more smoothly and naturally.

The most popular browsers used by visitors to this blog are - Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari in order of preference. The majority of page views are from Canada, which may seem only natural; but I have had a strong readership from the US and Great Britain, with a smattering of readership from Asian and South American countries. Page views by computer operating systems were ranked - Windows at 66%, Macintosh at 25%, with the remaining 9% coming from Other Unix, Blackberry and Linux.

I would like to thank

• Charles Groen, Project Inspector from Pitura Husson Ltd. for his regular updates on the status and details of the project that formed the backbone of most of the technical information I used in the blog
• Jennifer Hazelton, Project Manager from Pitura Husson Ltd. for her presentation and presence at the public information sessions back in March and her continued support in supplying me with drawings and technical data
• Stacy Hare, Communications Coordinator, Corporate Communications, Information Services, City of Guelph - my liaison with the city in providing updates from the city
• Linda Osmond, my wife - we will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on November 7 (nothing has stopped me before from interjecting a few personal notes) for contributing to the blog on several occasions with pictures, interviews and insight
• the construction crew of Bel-Air Construction - for doing a good job and showing consideration to the users and businesses of Dawson Road, for answering my multitude of questions and providing their insight
• Canada Post for making regular postal delivery, especially when access was physically difficult. You may be inclined to take this service for granted but it is essential to the life of a small business
• Guelph Transit for providing regular and consistent bus service on route 22
• City of Guelph garbage collection for getting here on a regular basis

So for one last time, come on down, I would love to see you on Dawson Road Today!

Brian

Plants For All

Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - Dawson Road Reconstruction is Almost Done

Good Tuesday morning and welcome back to Dawson Road Today! I thought when Halloween was over I would have some breathing space; but I guess the things that were piling up are staring me in the face now.

As you come onto Dawson Road today and into the construction site you will be directed by the orange and black arrow sign to go into the right hand lane.  There was a lot of construction traffic on Dawson Road yesterday. The crew were working in several areas to prepare the access entryways to the business parking lots for paving. As well they were in filling and compacting material in preparation for landscaping. In these two pictures you can see some of the old pavement that has been removed from our parking lot entryway and some piled up base material.

The following update was issued by Guelph Remastered yesterday relating to the Guelph Transit System and to bus route number 22 which services Dawson Road:

Guelph Transit Route 1, 7, and 22 Service Advisory: October 12 - Late November

Due to construction taking place at the 5 points intersection, route 1 Woodlawn, 7 St. Joseph’s Hospital, and 22 Conestoga will be temporarily detoured away from this intersection, travelling on Suffolk Street to and from St. George’s Square. This detour will be in effect at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, October 12.  

The bus stops on Woolwich Street, between London Road and Wyndham Street North will be out of service. A temporary stop will be located at 190 Norfolk Street, serving passengers travelling to St. George’s Square.

The weather for today is going to be clear but cool again. Tomorrow is going to warm up slightly and expected to be sunny. Hopefully, this will make for a couple of good construction days.

I will be terminating this blog with tomorrow's post, even though I anticipate the project will not be done. Rather than leave it unfinished and up in the air, I will post updates to a dedicated page on my new plant blog until the project is in fact done. You can find my new plant blog at Plants For All Blog.  Please check the new blog out now and bookmark it so you can catch the updates when I post them starting next week. Of course, you could e-mail me at any time for an individual update at plantsforall@ody.ca 

I will have some interesting stats about the blog and some background into its development tomorrow.

If you're coming down to Dawson Road today, please drive slowly and carefully, watching for the construction workers and being careful as you drive over the curbs into the business parking lots. And of course, we would love to see you on Dawson Road Today.

Brian

Plants For All

Monday, November 1, 2010 - Topcoat of Paving Done Saturday

Good Monday morning and welcome back to Dawson Road Today! This is the last Monday morning that this blog will be posted, as I am closing off this blog with the last posting being Wednesday, November 3rd.  With this being November 1, we are into the 8th calendar month of this construction project. More on that later.

This past Saturday the crews were working on putting on the topcoat of paving on Dawson Road from Shelldale Crescent to Speedvale Avenue. Yes, that's right Saturday. They were working Saturday to catch up on some of the many construction jobs in the city requiring their services. It looks good.

Later this week they'll be working on the landscaping of the boulevards and the sways from the sidewalk to the business property lines. There are still two old utility poles on the west side of Dawson Road that need to be removed. It would be best if this was done before the landscaping of the boulevards. However, there appears to be some scheduling issues with some of the service providers such as cable, telephone and fibre wired that may not allow this.

Yesterday of course was Halloween. Halloween is a big-time in our family for getting together and enjoying each other's company. Saturday, Linda and I held her annual Halloween party for our grandchildren and a few friends in our apartment. Once again, we had a very good time and for a few hours a break from reality. On Sunday, we left town to visit a son and his family and celebrate Halloween with them. As we were leaving Guelph we were pleased to see that several neighborhoods were getting into the spirit of Halloween with elaborate decorating of the houses and properties. This picture shows some of the game activities at our party Saturday.

At the start of  today you will be directed to drive into the construction site into the right hand lane and travel north.  Even though the project is nearing completion, there are still construction workers on site.  Please follow the rules and the pylons and drive safely.

Time Change: Apparently there is still some uncertainty about when our fall time change takes place because not too long ago it was the last weekend in October. In the Guelph time zone, Daylight Savings Time will end early in the morning of Sunday, November 7th at 2 am (1:59:57 to be more precise) when the clocks are turned back 1 hour to become 1 am Eastern Standard Time. (November 7 - easy for everyone to remember because that is the celebration of my wedding anniversary.)

I will be terminating this blog Wednesday, November 3rd, even though I anticipate the project will not be done. Rather than leave it unfinished and up in the air, I will post updates to a dedicated page on my new plant blog until the project is in fact done. You can find my new plant blog at Plants For All Blog.  Please check the new blog out now and bookmark it so you can catch the updates when I post them starting next week. Of course, you could e-mail me at any time for an individual update at plantsforall@ody.ca 

The weather has certainly taken a cool dip; but it is November after all.  This being Monday, I will be in the store, Plants For All at 66 Dawson Road,  after 12:30 pm and would love to see you here on Dawson Road Today!

Brian

Plants For All