Author Archives: raingardenuiuc

by Eliana Brown, Project Leader Tomorrow is a big day for us. Phase II of our project begins and the first plants go in! Juncus effusus in the greenhouse. Photo by Eliana Brown. The RORG team has been working hard to prepare – especially Layne Knoche, who is managing the plant installation. Students in severalContinueContinue reading “Almost planting day”

by Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Wednesday, September 11th. Howdy! With only 3 days of construction left before planting, things are really heating up at the rain garden! There were two crews working at the garden today. While Wayne and Tristan from Grounds spent the day doing some final clean-up of the site including clearingContinueContinue reading “Bridge footings”

By Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Tuesday, September 10th. Howdy! The final countdown begins. Today started the last week of construction* – planting begins next Monday! (*The crew got pulled off yesterday to work on a chilled water line boring – these things happen!) Josh and Mark arrived around 8:30 a.m. to finishContinueContinue reading “It’s the Final Countdown”

by Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Friday, September 6. Howdy, Short update today since I’m about to head to Indianapolis for a tournament this weekend. Today was a solid day at the garden wrapping things up as we prepare for the final week of construction before planting on September 16th. The weather hasContinueContinue reading “Week 6 Progress”

By Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Thursday, September 5th It finally happened! The day we’ve all been waiting for… we finally straightened that crooked bench! Josh and Justin had to leave early this afternoon for another project, so I asked Mark, who is filling in for Stephanie as our operating engineer, to useContinueContinue reading “No More Crooked Bench”

by Layne Knoche, Project Landscape Designer This post covers Wednesday, September 4th. Howdy! One of these days, we’ll find something other than “Today was another productive day at the Rain Garden” to start our blogs, but for now, that’s what you’re gonna get! But as the title states…it was also an impressive day. Concrete workContinueContinue reading “Making an Impression”

by Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Tuesday, September 3rd. Howdy! It was good to be back out at the rain garden today after a long Labor Day weekend. The Facilities & Services crews worked on the hardscaping: concrete sidewalk and the garden’s granite edging. When I arrived this morning, Josh and Stephanie wereContinueContinue reading “Hardscaping work continues (and cookies!)”

By Tony Heath, Project Engineer Howdy! We closed out a productive week with a good day at the rain garden. Today’s work included Facilities and Services placing the granite along the edges of the garden and Prof. Art Schmidt’s CEE 458 Water Resources Field Methods installing monitoring conduit. Granite edging: Facilities and Services started by placingContinueContinue reading “Week 5 Progress”

By Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Thursday, August 29th. Today was a busy day at the rain garden. Josh and Stephanie continued work to prepare for the decomposed granite installation while Eric Knisley and his concrete finishers were on-site in the afternoon to pour the sidewalk between the north and south cells ofContinueContinue reading “Everything’s coming together!”

By Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Wednesday, August 28th. We started the day continuing with our work from yesterday. Facilities and Services’ Josh and Stephanie cleaned up the trench and laid a thin layer of bedding sand for the pipe to lay on, while I continued to place rip-rap stones to serve asContinueContinue reading “The Siltsoxx Workout: Coming to a Gym Near You”