Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

It might take longer than expected before two-way traffic resumes on the Kittanning Citizen's Bridge.

A rainy summer has slowed PennDOT's rehabilitation of the 82-year-old bridge, which has been limited to one lane. Though it was originally supposed to reopen in early October, traffic restrictions are expected to last until Halloween, project manager Nate Adams said.

The $4.7 million rehabilitation project includes painting and structural repairs to the bridge and its approach in Kittanning.

It's been a really humid, wet and difficult summer, Adams said. We may have tarps up, but they aren't waterproof, so the heavy rains soak everything and make it so we can't paint.

The tarpaulins also turn the work site into a greenhouse, making the air hot, while the bridge remains cool. It causes condensation to form on the bridge, making it difficult to paint, Adams said.

The bridge serves as one of the town's main throughways, bringing traffic from Market Street in Kittanning to Butler Road in West Kittanning. Each day, about 15,000 cars cross the bridge, which spans the Allegheny River, according to PennDOT.

Currently, vehicles can cross the bridge from Kittanning into West Kittanning.

Traffic from West Kittanning into Kittanning has been rerouted along Butler Road to Franklin Hill Road, past the Franklin Village Mall and Hilltop Plaza, and onto Route 422 eastbound. That takes traffic across its bridge over the Allegheny. Motorists can get into Kittanning by taking Route 422 Exit B onto South Water Street.

Contractors are applying a final coat of paint to the closed side of the bridge.

By the end of this month, crews plan to work on the other side of the bridge, but the detour and lane restrictions won't change.

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Storms stall progress on Kittanning Citizens Bridge

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San Diego, Calif. It is officially summer. The sun is shining and the grass in your backyard is growing quickly. At home, mowing the lawn is one of summertime's most frequent chores and its no different for the solar industry.

Credit: Nihon Shokusei

Weed or vegetation management is particularly important for ground-mounted solar systems. Tall weeds growing around the installation can create shading, which can negatively impact system production. It can also cause hot spot heating if a part of the solar cell is shaded, the cell can heat up to such extreme temperatures that a module can burn out causing permanent damage.

After the feed-in tariff (FIT) program was launched in Japan a few years ago, many ground-mounted PV systems started popping up in the country where small residential roof-top solar systems used to dominate. System owners recognize that growing vegetation under and around PV systems must be minimized to protect their valuable investment.

There are several weed control methods used for PV ground-mount systems in Japan; mowing, spraying herbicide, grazing sheep/goats, and covering the area with weed control sheets, for example. Controlling weeds incurs additional operation and maintenance (O&M) expenses for PV system owners and the long-term costs and benefits need to be carefully examined.

Mowing is the most commonly used method in Japan at this point, but we are looking into other methods, said a project developer in Japan.

Mowing is very labor-intensive and needs to be repeated twice or three times a year. Besides hiring people or renting mowing equipment, there are fees for hauling and disposing the grass clippings. Another project developer commented that it costs between 100-200 yen (US $1-2) per square meter for a 2-MW system, which is typically about 40,000 square meters. Spraying herbicide is relatively inexpensive and requires a low initial investment. But spraying has to be done repeatedly over time and there are environmental concerns associated with certain chemicals in herbicides.

Herbivorous Animals to the Rescue

Last summer, Oita Sekiyu, a gasoline distributor and PV system reseller, built a 1.1-MW solar system on an old salt-pan site in Usa city, Oita prefecture. The company chose emu, the second largest bird in the world and native to Australia, to graze the vegetation growing under the solar system.

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Getting Out of the Weeds: How To Control Vegetative Growth Under Solar Arrays

FAIRBANKSA sinkhole opened up directly beneath a University of Alaska Fairbanks employee this morning, nearly swallowing a riding lawn-mower the size of a golf-cart.

A UAF facilities services employee was mowing the lawn on the hillside near the Taku parking lot on the east side of campus just off Farmers Loop when the ground opened up beneath the mower's front left wheel.

The hole was approximately 10 feet deep, according to estimates. At the surface the hole was about 4 feet by 5 feet across and widened a bit below, according to university spokeswoman Marmian Grimes.

No one was injured in the incident, Grimes said. Facilities Services has since filled in the hole.

A handful of sinkholes have been reported in Fairbanks in the last week, following several weeks of heavy rainfall. The university has dealt with at least three sinkholes on its property one in front of the West Ridge research building and another on the east side of campus, in addition to the one that opened this morning.

Sinkholes can be caused by a number of phenomena. Occasionally they appear due to subsurface erosion from groundwater and can take place in areas where ground has been filled in and not compacted.

Darrin Edson, the superintendent of operations for facilities services, said it's unclear exactly what caused this particular sinkhole, but he said it probably didn't come from recent changes to the soil in the area.

"That hasn't been touched in over 15 years. There's a lot of frozen soils in that area so my guess would be something down below thawed and created a cavity over time, and it just collapsed on that cavity," Edson said. "All the water we've had lately just adds to it and speeds it up."

Contact staff writer Weston Morrow at 459-7520. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMschools.

Contact staff writer Weston Morrow at 459-7520. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMschools.

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Sinkhole nearly swallows mower at university campus in Fairbanks

A week following a lawn-mower accident in North Augusta, Dean Perrin said the image of his son, Luke, propped underneath the family's riding-mower is like a 'still picture' embedded in his memory. When I try to sleep, it just flashes to him underneath that tractor, said Perrin Wednesday, minutes after admitting the two-and-a-half year old into emergency surgery at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. The picture of him haunts me. Luke, who underwent a second surgery Wednesday following the accident on June 29, appears to be recovering well, says his father, despite an enormous wound on his son's right leg. Now they're going to do skin grafting, where they take skin from his inner thigh and put it where the wound is, Perrin added. The procedure has a 95 per cent success rate, he said. But for both parents of the tiny, blonde-haired tot, the events of that day are never far from memory. On the morning of June 29, Dean Perrin began mowing his 38-acre property in North Augusta, including a large fenced-in dog run. As Perrin began mowing the inside of the 100-foot enclosed space, he saw that his son who loves running and playing outdoors was on the outside of the fence, and at the opposite end of the dog-run. When I was halfway to the back... I looked back and saw that he was still at the front gate outside the fence, Perrin said while recalling the incident. I drove another 15-feet, I hit a little stump... Put my foot on reverse and then I turned around and I don't know how he got there but he was right there, underneath the tractor. Perrin said he managed to lift the tractor with one hand while using the other to scoop his son out from under the tractor, ultimately fearing the worst. I frantically looked and just pictured him having no legs, said Perrin, while his wife, Theressa, was in the house with their other children. I said 'Oh my God' he has all of his limbs, and I turned him sideways a bit and I saw the massive gash. While Theressa Perrin called 9-1-1, Dean said he held Luke in his arms, knowing an ambulance might take 20 minutes to get there. I jumped in the truck, I yelled to my little seven-year-old, whos outside screaming, to go get mommy and a towel and get in the truck. Between the time of the accident and before arriving at Brockville General Hospital, Perrin said something miraculous happened. The family quickly sped towards Brockville, says Perrin, but just before arriving at County Road 6, he received a call from Ontario Provincial Police. They said: 'Okay, we're going to meet you and guide you to the hospital. Look for OPP and flash your lights. Driving between 130-140 kilometres-per-hour, Perrin arrived at Parkedale Avenue and North Augusta Road to find that OPP and Brockville Police had worked together to create a pathway. There were road blocks at three different intersections, and every street guiding us all the way to the hospital, Perrin said, referring to the effort has an amazing thing. Just 15 minutes after arriving at BGH, health-care specialists were preparing to transfer Luke to CHEO for further treatment and surgery. And while Perrin said he feels guilty for what happened, the family remains optimistic, hoping to raise an estimated $7,000 for two-months of uncovered home-care treatment. In an effort to help with home-care services and an advanced-healing vacuum unit, family members have set up a donation and Facebook page for anyone who may be interested in helping. But despite the accident, several surgeries and eventual home-care services, the Perrin's said they're just relieved to know Luke will play outside again soon.

FACTBOX: HOW TO HELP Donations for Lukes ongoing care can be made online at: http://www.gofundme.com/HELP-LUKE-WADE https://www.facebook.com/lukewaderecovery

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Horrible injury spawns heart-warming response

Got bugs?

State forestry officials want them specifically any that resemble the dreaded Asian longhorned beetle, an invasive species that can cut a destructive path through maples, elms, willows and other hardwoods.

Turns out the black-and-white tree feasters are drawn to swimming pools. But theyre lousy swimmers. Entomologists discovered pool filters and baskets are a treasure trove for insects of all kinds. In a preemptive strike to keep the Asian longhorned beetle from getting a foothold in the Granite State, state officials are enlisting the help of pool owners across the state.

What were asking people is to just look in their pool filters and look for these huge, glossy black-and-white longhorned beetles, said Kyle Lombard, forest entomologist with the state Division of Forest and Lands.

If anything resembling the longhorned beetle shows up, state officials ask pool owners to take a picture of it and upload the photo at nhbugs.org/asian-longhorned-beetle. To date, the Asian longhorned beetle has not been found in New Hampshire.

Weve learned pool filters are probably the best insect collector in the country, Lombard said Thursday.

State forestry officials got the pool survey idea from Worcester, Mass., where the Asian longhorned beetle caused major damage after first being detected there in 2008, Lombard said.

This thing is a lazy flier and tended to show up in swimming pools in Worcester, Lombard said.

Noel Negroni knows all about bugs in pools. The Manchester resident said he has never seen so many in the 14 years hes had an inground pool at his 204 Prospect St.

Its an infestation, Negroni said. Its like hundreds of them in the pool when I get up every morning.

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Check those pool filters for another invasive species