East of Africa Update - Otterbein's Bioremediation
The first of 48 new streetlights was installed Monday afternoon along the new roads built through the 88-acre East of Africa development project. These decorative streetlights offer an early preview of the streetscape that will line the area when construction is finished. Once completed, the road will feature sidewalks on both sides, each with a double row of trees.
Workers returned to the project last week after cold weather and the holiday break kept them away. Today’s installation of the street lights marked an opportunity to complete work that can be done during the colder months.
Much like a parent on a cold Christmas morning, the crew was delayed by a few missing parts as they opened the shipping containers. The work moved quickly for the three-person team, with a father-son duo making up the majority as they searched for and found substitute parts.
The lights are like most of the city’s street lights. Made by Holophane, the lights are decorative poles with a curved, shepherd’s hook mast arm and a pendant fixture that hangs below the arc. The light has a traditional “acorn” look, with a prismatic glass globe and an ornamental cap and finial. The fixture matches Holophane’s GranVille style decorative pendant family, commonly paired with an acorn refractor, and features a modern LED light engine.
Otterbein Runoff Remediation
Work continues adjacent to the parking lot at The Point at Otterbein, where the school is building a 140-foot-long bioremediation system to manage runoff from the recently rebuilt and upgraded lot.
Once finished, the underground system of gravel and pipes will collect rainwater from the nearby parking lot and direct it into a gravel-filled bed located under permeable soil. As the water moves through the stone and filtered soil, sediment is captured, and pollutants commonly found in parking lot runoff are removed. Oil residue, metals from brake dust, and other contaminants are trapped or broken down by naturally occurring microbes living in the soil.
After that filtering step, the treated water is transported through pipes into the city’s storm sewer. Systems like this are designed to limit what reaches streams and rivers while maintaining the surface area as usable green space.
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