5th April 2009: Gutter

Kensington is a great place to live.  However, I’ve noticed that our street gutters are poorly made and maintained.  Specifically, instead of having proper “curb cuts” where driveways cross over sidewalks, many houses have instead cast concrete directly in the gutter, leaving a small channel for the water to flow through.  These are prone to clogging and in my case, part of the concrete broke off and slid against the curb, blocking the channel for water flow.  To fix the problem I removed the offending concrete, drilled a few holes into the concrete gutter, placed some rebar and formwork, and then cast the concrete.  It isn’t pretty, but it works.

On the sidewalk is the broken piece of concrete that had slid against the curb, blocking the flow of water in the gutter.  In this photo, I’ve removed the broken concrete, installed a form for the new concrete, and drilled/installed rebar so the new concrete won’t slide into the curb.

Here I’ve mixed the concrete in Doug’s wheelbarrow and placed it against the form in the gutter.

 

After letting the concrete cure for a few days under plastic, I removed the form.  Looks like I still need to move the broken concrete however.

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