Sidewalk talk
There's been a lot of talk going around town about the brick sidewalks being replaced with stamped concrete. Luckily, this won't be happening, but believe it or not, it was being considered. The Capital and Infrastructure Committee for the BID actually had discussed this.
The total area of brick sidewalks has been determined to be 170,000 square feet, about the size of a Wal-Mart. Currently the loose bricks are causing people to trip and fall and a lot of the problem is tree roots pushing up the bricks, but it's also a case of shoddy workmanship done by the crews who took up the sidewalks to rewire for the new lighting. They were never replaced properly.
Maintaining the "warm village feel" was important and luckily the stamped concrete was determined to be much more costly than actual bricks, probably the reason bricks have been used for hundreds of years all over the world.
Concrete slabs would have caused major problems in the future where bricks are easily removed when needed. The BID committee learned that a compacted sand base, together with a mortar mix application toward the top of the base installation would resolve many of the brick movement problems.
A watered in sand and mortar mix provides some of the rigidity that is needed to keep the brick pavers in place. Additionally, the recommendations call for a high iron content brick paver, with a greater depth of at least two to three inches. Much of the current brick paver installation is thinner than recommended, causing it to come loose if any gap exists between one brick and another.
Mosaic inlays, sort of like you see at CocoWalk, were also discussed. They could be added at various intersections, adding a nice artistic feature.
Architects will be involved to help with tree root wells, which will help the roots and cause less disruption of the bricks.
posted by Tom Falco at 10:30 AM
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12 Comments:
"believe it or not, it was being considered"
What's the issue with something being "considered"? The whole point was to look into the problem, including alternatives. That you would attempt make this an issue says more about your interest in stirring the pot than any real attempt to present the facts.
Further, the comment that "bricks have been used for hundreds of years all over the world", while true on its face, neatly sidesteps the fact that the pavers in the Grove are a latter day development dating from the 1980s, not something going back to the Grove's early history.
Some of the people from the so called "center grove mafia" were the ones who stopped it from becoming stamped concrete.
"Believe it or not" because replacing the bricks with stamped concrete is the ugliest thing they could have come up with according to many people, not just me. And if you don't like my opinions here, why do you come back day after day? To torture yourself?
Taking the real bricks out putting in stamped concrete to look like bricks? Sounds pretty stupid to me too.
Thank you Center Grove mafia. You truly have good taste. :)
I hope by "architect" you mean Landscape Architect.
thank God that's not happening, cobblestone would be nice. Coral Gables does not have concrete so why should we?
"bricks have been used for hundreds of years all over the world", while true on its face.."
Of course it's true, you can just visit any city in Europe or the oldest cities here in US. Those bricks look great and they give our Village a cool traditional look. The officials should focus instead on fixing the streets around the Grove. Any runner will tell you that it's a freaking mine field out here. The area where the bricks are is fine, even to run, compared to many other sections of the Grove. And if they have money to spend, why not built sidewalks where they are inexistent, as in 27th AV, or expedite the infamous Waterfront plan? CI
You know what's really sad? The city yells at a business for having messed up sidewalks usually from things being dropped on them like kegs, etc.. (Yes they get fined for messed up bricks in front of their business.) When the business ask the the city where to get the bricks so they can be replaced the city says they are out of stock and unavailable. Once the business actually dug around and managed to find the exact same bricks, the city won't let them replace them because it takes permits and requires shutting the sidewalks down.
I know this happened to one place in the grove and they actually took the initiative to find the bricks so they could replace them=no more fines. Who knows if other businesses even care.
Catch 22
This is why we have so many messed up sidewalks. The city is RETARDED
If what Catch 22 says is correct, then this is where the BID should step in and fast track the permits needed, procure the bricks for where they are and arrange to have the work done as part of the service for the assessment the building owners get
Anon 1:08
I totally agree! The BID is useless and all they do is follow Sarnoff like little puppies.
The bricks are literally stacked up in in a closet (next to the kegs) waiting to be put down on the sidewalks.
Catch 22
Hey that's my bike!!!
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