My project did several things to enhance the Colonial Greenway Trail sections in New Rochelle. We placed mulch at one particular section of the Leatherstocking trail that had become muddy and extremely wet, from years of rain and other factors. On other parts of the trail, we trimmed back overgrown vegetation, such as vines, thorn bushes, and tall grasses.
As a result of Hurricane Sandy, we did a lot of work to repair the damage caused by the storm. We had trained adults use chainsaws to cut downed trees that obstructed the path of the trail, and for trees that were too large, we assisted the city by providing locations for where downed trees were on the path. Further damage repairs involved repairing structures damaged by the storm, such as railing and catwalks.
The Colonial Greenway trail is marked with small plastic diamond signs, so as the project went on we nailed up some new signs to replace old ones, and we added new signs if we felt they needed to be added. This project also involved two more technical aspects: QR codes and Geocaches.
Changes/Obstacles
This project underwent a lot of change between the proposal stage, and the actual project. Unlike in the project proposal, the actual project did not involve any information packets being created. Also, the entire trail was not GPS’d, as that seemed unnecessary based on existing trail maps being quite accurate. The biggest change in this project came from our biggest obstacle, Hurricane Sandy. The storm not only made the project more difficult, it changed the project fundamentally.
First of all, I had planned a work weekend for the weekend of the 28th of October. I wanted to work on that Sunday, the 28th, even if the group were small. Upon seeing the initial panic and preparation of parents and kids getting ready for the storm, I obviously decided to not work on Sunday afternoon, even if the storm did not really begin until Sunday night.
The storm hit hardest from Sunday night until Monday night, and the last thing on my mind was the project. We lost that Sunday to work, but we also lost the following weekend to work. Sandy was quite debilitating, and by the next weekend, the shock and damage of the storm still took priority over the project. Several weeks passed, and not only did I get busy catching up with school things, Thanksgiving break came around. It was not until the 27th of November, that we would work again on the project. This was a one month stoppage of work, which was definitely a challenge, as we had to play catch up for the next few weeks.
But Sandy did not just delay my project, it changed it. The proposed project involved repairs to various parts of the trail, but repairs that would be mostly cosmetic, such as clearing back trails a bit. The damage that Sandy did made this project into more of a repair project than anything else. Many trees had fallen, landscaping structures were broken, and trails became almost impossible to walk through. It became evident that this project had to be one to help fix many sections of trail that would not be held in high priority by most people in the community. So, our project involved some chainsaw work, more serious trial clearing, and the use of lumber and tools to repair structures like catwalks and bridge railings.