Clearing Land and Other Updates

Dateline: May 31, 2022

After a long spell waiting for news about the new school, the New School web site is now being updated. You can now expect to find weekly updates on that web site from the Owner's Project Manager, Gordon Bristol. This saves you the need of attending monthly School Board meetings to find out what is going on.

In an April report, Mr. Bristol announced the good news that the test well produced 30 gallons per minute, more than sufficient. In early May, the well passed a 24-hour stress test to make sure there was enough capacity. Water quality was an additional test to be conducted.

Milestone Engineering of Concord, NH contracted with a tree service operated by John Brown of Weare, NH to clear the land. On May 10th they started cutting trees and clearing brush for the new school right across from the fields at Lavalley Farms on River Road. A narrow swath of trees was left standing along River Road to act as a visual screen. All the machine noise and activity didn't seem to bother the chickens on the farm.

Matt Beaulieu said they were assigned to clear five acres by May 31st. Most of the smaller trees and saplings were being turned into wood chips. Larger pine trees were de-limbed and cut into 12-foot logs to be taken to local mills.

A machine with a grappler grabbed the fallen trees and slowly dragged them to the chipping area. Such a machine is visible in the following photo just beyond the MILESTONE and New School signs.

A giant wood chipping machine was set up on a gravel-covered area near the road and a box trailer was backed up to receive the wood chips. As shown in the next three photos, an operator in a cab atop the machine would use a grappling claw to grab an entire tree from the pile to the left, lift it, rotate to the right, and stuff it into the chipper. With a loud roar, the tree was reduced to chips which were then blown into the box trailer on the right. With a steady supply of trees, the chipper was able to fill a trailer in about one hour. The wood chips were then trucked offsite.

Another machine called a tree shear, equipped with large tires and tire chains, rolled through the grounds grabbing saplings and sometimes gripping full-sized trees. In a few seconds, it cut through them at ground level with a shear saw. With the severed saplings or a tree still in its grips, the machine rotated to its rear, tilted the tree back, and let it fall to the ground. The machine then slowly rolled to the next tree and repeated the same steps.

 VIDEO: Cutting down a tree

By Friday May 13, 3 acres had been cleared. The tree line at the far end of the clearing looked to be a few hundred yards away, as shown in this photo from atop the log pile near the road.

By the following Wednesday, the operation was completed and all machinery was removed. The remaining stack of logs was also hauled away to a local mill.

With the trees and brush having been cleared and hauled away, Gordon Bristol, the Owner's Project Manager, said the next step would be to remove the hundreds of stumps left behind.

Groundbreaking Ceremony

On Thursday June 2nd at 9:30 a.m., there was to be a Groundbreaking Cermony at the site. Arrive early and join school district and town officials for this special event.

Bringing in Three-Phase Power

Elsewhere on River Road, Eversource crews have been working to bring three-phase power from Granite Street to the site of the new school. They have installed all new green-tinted utility poles next to the existing ones.

The Eversource foreman said that they were installing 45-foot poles 6 1/2 feet in the ground. Since the new poles were installed very close to the existing ones, you could see that they were several feet taller. The foreman explained that the new wiring would be much safer. The current top high-voltage wire is #2 bare wire.

The next step requires the tree service to cut limbs and branches way from the new poles so that the cabling can be safely installed. Lucas Tree Service has been doing a lot of that work in the area.

A later step involves installing the Hendrix Covered Conductor System. This system consists of special pole brackets and high-density, polyethylene cable spacers mounted atop the new poles. These fixtures carry the wire cables from pole to pole. The cable system consists of a top messenger wire that supports the weight of the other wires and also acts as the earth ground. The other wires are double insulated aluminum conductors that carry the 7200-volt three-phase power. (Don't ask me to explain three-phase power.) These wires can withstand temporary contact with a tree or heavy branch. The older bare wire was prone to setting a leaning tree on fire or causing a power outage.

For an example of this type of power cabling system, drive along Route 3 in Pembroke. Hendrix conductors have been installed on the utility poles from Broadway north to Pembroke Academy.

This system comes with a higher startup cost but reduced maintenance cost for tree trimming, as well as low risk of power outages and fire. The power lines do run along a length of River Road that is densely populated with tall pine tress.

What You Can Do

Take an occasional slow drive down River Road and watch the progress taking place. As they say, IT'S YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.