Concrete Progress on Preston Street in Little Italy

In the commercial parts of Preston Street the sidewalks will consist of pavers and concrete squares, so curbs are poured first and the walks built later. Where parking insets are provided, the drainage continues to catch basins along a "flat curb" that helps define the travelled portion of the street (sometimes streets with bulb outs get visually confusing to motorists), and keeps water accumulation away from the sidewalks and snow-blocked road edges.

Metal stakes with a string are placed with the aid of survey equipment. The curb placement will be about 2m outside the string line. The new streetscaping will provide larger sidewalks for pedestrians and street animating cafe's in Little Italy.

Cement is poured through a convey belt to the curb former which is shown extruding the curb in place, much like toothpaste from a tube.

Look closely (click to enlarge picture) to see the finger that goes along the string, keeping the curb extruder aligned along the street. This is on St Anthony street by the Qway. The first pallets of paving stones have also be delivered to the site for constructing the sidewalks behind the curb line.