Widening the Common Driveway Entrance, 2009
A wide entrance is critical to safe ingress/egress to West River Road. The Medina County Highway Engineers required a 50-foot wide connection from the common drive to West River Road. Due to the location of a utility pole that had been installed in the driveway easement, the driveway would have a sharper curve entering/exiting south, and a more gradual sweep entering/exiting to the north. In addition, Dominion, East Ohio Gas Company, formerly East Ohio Gas Company had installed a 30-inch transmission pipe line (TPL) through the southeast corner of the original Popa farm which is now Lakeview Rural Reservation. There is a yellow marker that must remain in place to designate the location of the TPL line.
The stakes mark the sweep of the south side of the common drive entrance/exit to West River Road. These stakes were placed in consultation with the Medina County Highway Engineers office.
The yellow flags mark the path of the underground Columbia Gas Company line that dad, Joe Popa, extended from Valley City to the end of the Popa property on Grafton Road. Note the stake near the large rock. This is the marker that Dominion East Ohio Gas mandates be left in place.
In 1995, Dominion East Ohio Gas Company gave permission for the common driveway to be installed over the path of the TPL line, but must cross at or near a right angle to the line. Another stipulation was that should any work be performed over the line that a Dominion inspector be on site. The inspector, Phil Marx, required that he be on-site for any excavation around the pipe line.
Mr. Marx arrived and requested that the first test hole would be near the western location of the driveway.
First, Mr. Marx required Tom Hricovec, the main operator for Kodiak to carefully dig down to near the TPL pipe anticipated depth, Mr. Marx observing every bucket stroke.
As Tom neared the expected depth of the TPL, Paul Hricovec dug deeper with a shovel under the watchful eye of Mr. Marx. Finally at over 3 feet, Paul unearthed the pipe, careful to not scratch the protective coating on the pipe. Satisfied, Mr. Marx authorized Tom to backfill the excavation with sand, then clay, then the 3 or 4-inch driveway rock used as the compacted base of the driveway.
The second test hole was near the intersection of West River Road and the common driveway. Oops, while digging this hole, Tom uncovered a large rock that had been dropped into the trench when the TPL line was initially installed. That rock was removed and is now in the privacy mound landscaping.
With the TPL line depth found, Tom again backfilled. Tom continued to excavate the driveway with Mr. Marx watching every bucketful.
While Mr. Marx observed, Tom filled the dump truck. Between dumping truck loads, Paul bulldozed the loads into the designated shape of the mound.
Once he was assured that Tom was a careful excavator he left, promising to return on his way back from another inspection.
As Tom continued to remove topsoil to the clay base, he loaded the dump truck and Paul dumped it in the area designated for the entrance privacy mound.
On the opposite side of the driveway there were Scotch pine trees in the way of the driveway widening. After felling them, Kodiak trucked them over to the Lot 13 home site where I cut them to size, cleared the mud from the stumps then burned them. The key is to knock as much dirt off as possible. The soil moisture around the roots dictates whether to let the soil dry out before removing or to remove immediately.
First the stumps were scooped out.
With perseverance the logs all eventually burned as did the stumps.
The south sweep of the driveway at West River Road was very close to the utility pole. Medina County required that protective pipes be installed. Before placing the rock, Kodiak installed three 6-inch iron pipes, set in concrete and filled with concrete.
The three concrete-filled pipes were installed, then the rock was placed around them.
After Kodiak had installed the pipes, I painted them with yellow Rustoleum, then later placed reflective tape to better display the pipes at night.
This is an August 17, 2009 view of the West River Road common drive near the entrance.
