Odds and Ends October First, 2013

There are lots of little things going on around town. The installation of new gas tanks at the BP station by the river continues. Here is what the site looked like a few days ago.

I noticed that the drive-through lanes for Lafayette National Bank were closed as the facility was being renovated. This is a very quick renovation--it started on Saturday and the bank expects the lanes to be open tomorrow, on Wednesday.

The renovation of what used to be Murray's Department store is much slower. It will become the new location for the 24/7 Fitness Center that is now in the College Mall. I recall hearing several months ago that it would be open in November. A new floor is being installed and the space will be chopped up a bit.

Work on the rail crossing on McKinley (and Franklin) is finished. On Friday I watched a couple guys working on the rails. One of them used a big circular saw to chop off a bit of the end of a rail. I wondered why they were doing such a thing.

But then they brought out a mold that they fit around the rail. They were going to pour molten metal into it to weld the rail together. I did not watch the whole process, but below you can see the end result.

This week paving crews are busy paving the streets that were ripped up last week. They are working fast. Quite a few of the streets are finished already.

Not so fast has been the remodeling of what will be Dale's Steak and Chop Shop. They expected to open in late spring or early summer. Today a truck was delivering product for their opening, which will be tomorrow, Wednesday, at 9 am.

How fast can you say "chop shop" three times in a row and get it right?

There is a new concrete slab on the south side of the Talbert Bridge. Immediately after I took this picture, a city worker drove up in a truck so I asked him what the slab was for. He said that it would support a granite bench with the names of donors.

Work continues on the SJC bell tower. I took this picture on Sunday after the concert because I liked the way the low sun was lighting the scaffolding.