Beginning

Saturday ten (10) people showed up to move some iron. Thankfully, one (1) of them brought a motorized, caterpillar tracked cart.

Four (4) steel bridge abutments were muscled into position and four (4) trusses where handled the same. A big FAST thank you to all that helped.

The group put in near five (5) hours of work on Saturday. That will be the longest session. We're going to keep subsequent session much closer to three (3) hours.

On Sunday three (3) of us made our way to the steel abutments with a tape measure and shovels in tow. The abutments were leveled up pretty well and put fairly close into final position.

Next weekend we'll set the trusses, deck the bridges, and start hauling rock. We'll place some rock as ballast on the steel abutments. The remaining rock will be strategically placed where we know we'll need armoring, some drainage area crossings, and where we want rock gardens.

It feels so good to finally be in the park and making some trail progress.

Ride on.

Big Steel

A picture from a project we're doing at work. Sorry for the crappy camera phone quality.

The specs - 83 feet long, 9 feet two inches tall, 28,500 lbs. of hollow structural section truss. Top and bottom chords are 14 inches square. The web members are 12 inch by 8 inch rectangular sections. Truss one (1) of two (2).

Ride on.

Imminent

The single-track project is now coming together. Things on the “to do” list are dropping like flies.

First (1st) up, I've found out we no longer need to have a building permit. This is one (1) less thing to do. Not that it would have been a big issue.

Second (2nd), we have park walk-through with the Parks Department and the neighborhood representative tomorrow. I guess the neighborhood types want to feel like they have some say in where things are going to go. I can't see they'd have any problems with anything. A group of us walked the park on Sunday and couldn't even see the houses most of the time.

On Friday I have a pre-construction meeting with the Parks Department. I'm not sure what this is about. My guess is they want to have some ground rules of what, where, and when.

Falls Area SingleTrack's check is to the insurance people. As soon as they send us the insurance certificate I'll forward it onto the City. We are expecting this to happen in the next day.

And then comes Saturday. We're tentatively planning two (2) activities. The first (1st) is one (1) set of volunteers painting all the bridge deck lumber. The second (2nd) activity is setting the bridge abutments, girders, and bracing. If this goes as quickly as I think it will, we'll start decking the bridges either on Saturday or Sunday.

From there it's mark the trail, clear the coridoor, and start the digging. We're on a race against frozen ground but I think we'll be able to get much trail in yet this season.

Holy crap has my plate been full. But, I'd have in no other way. It is so nice to see everything coming together. I'm hoping to have pictures to post next week.

Ride On.

What A FAST Weekend

It was a FAST weekend. As in, all things FAST.

The weekend started with me going to work. But not in my usual capacity. Saturday, I spent five (5) hours in the shop punching holes, drilling holes, and welding. I was turning the donated steel trusses, along with some other steel, into the two (2) bridges we'll need for Leaders Park.

Sunday, more of the same. I spent a couple of (2) hours there in the morning doing more work. Progress was good, but there was much work to do.

Sunday I met the boys at Leaders Park. In order to placate the neighbors in the 'hood, we're going to do a park walk through explaining where the trails were are going to end up. We did a nice lap, me explaining to the others, the others asking "why can't we do this?" and the trail plan is evolving nicely.

We stopped atop a hill for a rest in the shade and frank discussions on expenses and all that was coming up. And, there is much coming up. And, many expenses.

Wednesday, Atom and I are making an assault on Menard's to buy the wood for the bridge decks. He's commandeering a truck from his work and we'll haul it to an off site location for prep.

This week I'll get with Parks for some things. I need to arrange the building permit. We need to have a pre-construction meeting. We need to get them our insurance certificate.

Later Sunday I was back to the shop to finish fabrication on the bridges. Another four (4) hours and they were pretty much done. The only thing left is the cross bracing. For that I'm going to model the thing on CAD for accurate measurements.

It's going to be a full week this week. We're really hoping to be working in the park proper this coming weekend.

Ride on.

Scraper Bikes

Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo.

Ride on.

Now We're Really Rolling

Lots has happened in the last twenty-four (24) hours or so. First (1st), The Agreement for the Leaders Park singletrack project was voted on and unanimously approved by the Parks and Recreation Board.

Our insurance provider has sent us a quote for the insurance required by the City. Once the insurance types answer a few questions, we'll be cutting them a check and getting our certificate.

Our attorney has put together a whopper of a waiver. Once our attorney says we can do so, we'll send that to the City for the risk management types to review it.

This weekend I'll be pre-assembling our two (2) bridges. I have some modifications to do to some existing trusses. I also need to build the steel abutments. I'll build them and then dismantle them, match marking as I go. This will make for quick and easy work in the field.

We're (we as in FAST) in the market to purchase some handy-dandy tools and such. We intend to pick up a heavy duty pull type wagon. The one (1) we're eye-balling has a one-thousand pound (1000 lbs) capacity. It also has big floatation type tires.

I'm about to schedule a park walk through with Parks and the crabby neighborhood types. It's a necessary evil and could serve to limit bitching in the future.

I need to acquire a building permit. Parks and Recreation are supposed to help to make this quick and easy.

We need to have a pre-construction meeting with Parks. I'm assuming this is going to be very quick since we've gone over everything many, many times. We'll see, I could be greatly surprised. I think it's standard operating procedure for City type things. Again, probably no biggie.

I've mentioned in the past Parks and Recreation felt this project and process was moving very fast while FAST people compared this to glacier movement. Now, all of a sudden, things are smoking. It will be so nice to have all the paperwork FINALLY complete and nothing better to do than to dig. You dig?

Ride On.

Another Step

Yesterday I appeared before the Parks and Recreation Board. They unanimously voted to approve the agreement between Falls Area SingleTrack (FAST) and the City for the singletrack project.

The agreement now routes around the City for appropriate signatures, we send the insurance company a check, and then we dig. Somewhere in there the attorney needs to finish reviewing the waiver so that is place as well.

It is now imminent we'll be digging singletrack yet this fall.

Ride on.

Singletrack Dates

Things are picking up quite quickly for Falls Area SingleTrack, Inc (FAST). We've gone back and forth with the Parks and Recreation department on hammering out the language of The Agreement. I think it is now in its final form.

I've needed to pick up the pace getting insurance. Fortunately, FAST is an IMBA affiliated bike club. IMBA has a means to getting exactly the insurance we need. That is in process.

We've hired an attorney. As part of getting volunteers to help dig, we need to have a waiver in place from the volunteers to sign. I've got it drafted and now it's going to the attorney for comments and revisions.

We have some not-so-tentative dates. Next Tuesday, October 12th, The Agreement is supposed to voted on by the Parks and Recreation Board at their monthly meeting. Once this is done it gets “routed” around City offices for signatures. One (1) of which is the mayor's office.

Once the mayor signs it, the last signature needed, we're good to go. So, in theory, we could start digging on October 16th. FAST is getting ready. A few odds and ends need to be purchased.

Finally, I'll need to appear before the City council once all the above things happen as it is announced to them in the case anyone in the Council has any questions. I can handle Q & A. Especially by that time. All hoops will have been jumped through and we'll be on our way to some sweet singletrack, pretty centrally located within our city limits.

I am cautiously optimistic regarding all these planet alignment issues. A wrench can still be thrown into the proverbial cogs. But, as I said, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Ride On.

Paperwork

The officials of Falls Area SingleTrack, Inc (FAST) met last night. There were many things to discuss. The most important item on the agenda was the lease agreement draft between the City of Sioux Falls and FAST for the singletrack project in Leaders Park.

Things are coming together. We have the agreement. L.G. Everist aggregate company donated a truck load of rocks. We'll use these for trail armoring, obstacles, and bridge abutment ballast.

We've had our celebration and now it's almost time for the tools to hit the dirt. Before that happens, we do have a few more items to take care of. One (1) such item is to get insurance in place. We'll need insurance for after the trail is done being built and in service as well as insurance for when we build.

In the next few weeks we'll start work off site on the bridges we'll need. I've them engineered and we just need a little pre-assembly off site before we haul them to site. Over the winter we'll make a better website. I'm also going to (try) tackle the 501(c)3 (non profit) status with the I.R.S.

We're getting so close to digging I can almost taste the worms. This has been a long time coming. Having a quality urban singletrack venue will be awesome. And, it's an indicator of what type of work FAST can do. We have our eyes on a bigger prize. But, we'll never achieve that unless this one (1) turns out stellar. Gotta love a challenge!

Ride On.

Here's One Way To Solve It

Solve what? Why the financial crisis! It is very interesting to watch the first few minutes when the dude takes an informal poll on views on the economic crisis and unemployment. His comments regarding him polling economic types might lead a dude to worry.

Regardless, here's the Ted x talk. It's longer – eighteen plus minutes, but, if you have the time I encourage you to watch it. There's a larger lesson to be learned. I won't say what I think it is but would be curious as to what you think it is.

Ride On.

Friday Visual

Ride on.