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Parapara Dam near Richmond Flat, was built by the Parapara Hydraulic Sluicing company at the end of the 19th century.

COLUMN: Hikers through the Aorere Goldfields this summer will no doubt be impressed by Druggans Dam, by far the biggest relic of the Collingwood goldfields.

Lesser known, and harder to access, are two other contemporary dams one up the Parapara River and the highest at Boulder Lake.

For sheer perseverance, the Parapara Hydraulic Sluicing Company holds the record with its 25-year stint in the field.

Some 80 tons of cement went into their 20m-wide Parapara Gorge dam near Richmond Flat, built around 1895. Sluicing achievements of this company include washing a whole mountain away and irrevocably diverting the Glen Gyle catchment into the Parapara Valley. Well done boys!

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In terms of determination though, few sagas beat the building of the dam across the outlet to Boulder Lake, high in the barren Quartz Range, 24km inland from Collingwood.

Floated in London in December, 1896, with an astronomical capital of 150,000, the Collingwood Goldfields Company had good reason to feel optimistic. The conglomerate drifts of the mountainside claim were known to contain rich gold.

Supplied/Nelson Mail

Thanks to the dam, Boulder Lake once occupied much of the glacial valley

One party of early prospectors picked up seven ounces of gold just by turning over large blocks of quartz. Imagine what full scale sluicing could uncover, so went the rationale.

Impossible country meant that the 50-pound bags of cement had to be carried in on workmans backs for the last part of the climb to the 1000 metre-high dam site. Although just three metres high, the dam nearly doubled the size of the glacial lake.

A sawmill was established to mill the matai and rimu needed for the eight kilometres of fluming needed to carry the water down from the intake below the dam. The timber had to be punted across the Aorere River and taken three kilometres by wagon before being trucked on a horse tramline up to the flume construction site.

Over 100 tons of pipes and equipment were transported up from Dunedin and slung across the Aorere River by aerial ropeway. The enormous flurry of activity even prompted Collingwood storekeepers to open temporary branches in the Quartz Ranges.

Sluicing began in August 1899. Despite a more than adequate water supply, returns at the claim were much less than was hoped for,

By November of the following year, the company was in liquidation. The operation carried on under a tribute arrangement with former employees.

Prospects for the new owners were looking bright until 1905, when a big flood carried away part of the fluming. Neither workers or owners were prepared to pay for the costly repairs and all the installed equipment was sold off.

Supplied

Algie Soper mustering the Haupiri Range

Amongst it all operated the graziers who leased Haupiri Station, the two runholders being John (Jack) Flowers who started it, and son Sidney (Sid) Flowers who took it over around 1920.

This 90 square kilometre run - bordered by the Haupiri Range, Slate River, Mt Hardy, Boulder Lake and Snow River up to the Lead Hills would surely rate as one of the most ambitious grazing leases in the country.

From Puramahoi, the sheep had to be driven for three days up over Pararara Peak and along Big Hill Face (Walker Ridge) and down to the flats at the top of Boulder Lake.

To make the sheep think others had come before them, one boys job was to go ahead with a small sack of sheep-dung and use his hand to smear it into the trunks of trees along the route.

It would prove not the blizzards or the steep rocky faces that defeated the graziers up here, but the errant goldminers who came during the depression and shot sheep for both meat and sport.

Supplied

In its heyday, Boulder Lake Dam and Control Gate

Sid Flowers recalled how one day he came across 13 shot sheep piled into a heap, only their fillets and back legs knifed off.

He wanted the police to go look for the miner-poachers, but they were not keen on long bush walks where they might be mistaken for an animal and shot.

Sid put in 850 sheep in his final year, 1933, but could only find 350 to muster out. While his father had some admiration for the dam builders of Boulder Lake, his son did not share his sentiment and one day packed in a load of dynamite to blast open the dam and thereby reclaim the extensive flats at the head of the lake.

Little remains today to tell the tale of the dambuilders up here. What flumings did survive have all rotted away. Even the devastating tailings down below have largely merged into the landscape.

But three dams Druggans, Parapara and Boulder - remain as solid tribute to the enormous human effort and endurance.

Supplied/Melanie Walker

The view from Druggans Dam today. Photo by Melanie Walker.

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Determination and true grit defined the early days of Golden Bay's golden days - Stuff.co.nz

Two weeks from now, an historic local bridge is getting a round of repairs. Its the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge spanning the Connecticut River.

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation maintains the bridge. Beginning on Monday, January 4, the agency will start to replace several worn-out wooden planks on its deck.

At first, the bridge will be closed to traffic from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every day for a week. For four more weeks after that, one lane of alternating traffic will be open at a time during those same hours. Both lanes will be open once the repairs wrap up each day. Transportation officials expect the work to be complete in early February.

The Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge has been standing since 1866 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Until 2008, it was the longest covered bridge still in use in the United States.

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Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge deck repairs begin on Jan. 4th - Local 22/44 News

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Franklin Regional 8th graders deck the doors with decorations - TribLIVE

After one of the toughest years in anyones living memory, the Opinion Page team is offering up a gift to raise your holiday spirits: A Christmas Zoom chat, hosted by editor Sarah Garrecht Gassen this Thursday, Dec. 24, at 2 p.m. Shell be lighting her yule log, sipping some nonalcoholic eggnog and leading the discussion about why white Christmases are overrated.

The ever-entertaining cartoonist David Fitzsimmons will be dropping in to keep things jolly and bright, so if youre into cartoons or cartoonish antics, be sure to log on and tune in.

The discussion will take place over Zoom, so you can log in on your laptop, desktop or tablet, or call a special number and listen in over your phone. For a link, email Sarah at sgassen@tucson.com. Shell send the Zoom link out early on Christmas Eve morning.

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Deck the halls with the Opinion Page team chat on Christmas Eve! - Arizona Daily Star

I love this, so many towns are doing this right now, and our towns in Ocean County look fabulous.

I can't remember when Christmas lights in Ocean County looked so good. According to the patch.com, voting for the "Deck the House" began last week and runs through December 31st, 2020. It's your chance to vote for your favorite holiday light display in Barnegat.

Here's the list of 35 houses in Barnegat's Deck the House to check out and vote:

39 5th St.

31 Benjamin Ct.

104 Beverly Dr.

2 Buck Dr.

48 Chestnut Way Circle

32 Compass Ln.

41 Deck St.

677 E. Bay Ave.

22 First St.

119 Gunning River Rd.

16 Herkimer Ct.

49 Hickory Circle

27 Hillside Ave.

29 Jon Dr.

22 Lexington Ave.

19 Longboat Ave.

31 Longboat Ave.

11 Mast Dr.

63 Mutineer Ave.

152 Nautilus Dr.

11 Ninth St.

132 Pine Oak Blvd.

150 Ravenwood Blvd.

2 Rifle Ct.

9 & 11 Savannah Dr.

1 Seaview Ct.

17 Shelli Terrace

9 Tedesco Way

75 Village Dr.

9 Wavecrest Ct.

5 Windward Dr.

2 Woodmere Ct.

7 Woodmere Ct.

Click here toVOTE for your favorite Barnegat decorated house. Votes are for one person at a time.

The best thing to do with the family this holiday season is to be together. This is a great way for the family to be together. All 35 houses look beautiful and you could make a game out of it. Who's the first to spot Rudolph or Santa. I have some friends that made up their own scavenger hunt and it was so cool and creative and best yet it kept the kids busy for a while in the car looking at lights.

CLICK HERE to vote.

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Voting is Taking Place Now for Barnegat's "Deck the House" - wobm.com

Fujiyama Tower promises a viewing like nothing youve ever experienced before.

No trip to Japan is complete without seeing Mt Fuji at least once, and soon youll be able to see it from a brand new angle, thanks to a thrilling new setup at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park in Yamanashi Prefecture.

Home to a number of thrill rides, Fuji-Q Highland is most famous for its giantFujiyama roller coaster, which stands at 79 metres (259 feet) in height, and this is where the new viewing deck will be installed.

Oncethe tallest roller coaster in the world when the park opened in 1968, Fujiyama is now the eighth highest in the world.

Image: Wikipedia/ Geomr~commonswiki

Those who ride the rollercoaster get to enjoy jaw-dropping views of Japans tallest mountain as they whizz by the circular section in the middle. A view this good is a shame to waste on a ride-by that takes a few seconds, though, so Fuji-Q have now come up with a brilliant new way for non-riders to enjoy it too.

Called Fujiyama Tower, the new viewing area comprises several different experiences for visitors to try, depending on their daredevil levels. First up, theres theFujiyama Sky Deck Observatory, where people can enjoy sweeping views ofMt. Fuji and its surrounding areas from a height of about 55 metres (180 feet).

Photos from here, where you can see a full vista of Mt Fuji rising up from the earth, promise to be spectacular.

The next activity, called Fujiyama Walk, is not for the faint of heart. Previously reserved for staff, who got to enjoy this unique view of Mt Fuji while performing daily inspections of the rollercoaster tracks above, this windswept passage without handrails can now be enjoyed by visitors attached to a harness.

The third new activity on offer is atube-type slider called Fujiyama Slider, which is said to transport visitors from the deck to the ground level in moments.

The slider wraps around the elevator shaft at the centre of the tower.

The Fujiyama Tower is being built at a cost of1.07 billion yen (US$10.35 million), and is scheduled to open to the public in the summer of 2021. Interestingly, Fuji-Q Highland says visitors to the Fujiyama Tower will be able to enjoythe screaming entertainment that is typical of the park, which contradicts the scream in your heart request they put out as a coronavirus countermeasure for riders earlier this year.

Source, images: PR Times (unless otherwise stated) Want to hear about SoraNews24s latest articles as soon as theyre published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

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A terrifying new way to view Mt Fuji: From a deck at the top of a giant rollercoaster! - SoraNews24

COVID-19 is altering Minnesota commercial real estate in subtle ways from a boost in office subleases to quick construction pivots to adapt offices and apartments to allow tenants to safely gather outside in the winter or toil away indoors.

Doran Cos. was building its new Birke apartment complex in Minnetonka last summer when the coronavirus forced it to rethink its "amenities deck."

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising that people avoid socializing indoors, the developer scrapped original designs and opted to heat the deck concrete to allow 125 future tenants to more comfortably use the outdoor BBQ grills, hot tub, fire pits and seating well into December and January.

The change was a first for Doran but is one in a growing number of COVID pivots that building designers are making to cope with a pandemic that is not expected to be completely eradicated for months, even as vaccines roll out nationwide. Many design changes are adding tens of thousands of dollars to construction projects, but not breaking the bank.

Still, the effects of COVID-19 are expected to last for years as office and factory workers, baristas, nurses aides and apartment tenants continue to look for built-in safety measures.

Minnesota building owners quickly installed touchless elevators, hand-sanitizing stations, temperature check-ins and new air-filtration systems during the early days of the pandemic. But now that the virus cases have surged, developers are adding shower rooms, private offices and heated three-season outdoor patios across Minnesota.

Builders are asking themselves, "What are the long-term impacts of COVID?" and then altering their plans, said Doran President and Chief Executive Anne Behrendt. Many are also careful to ask, "Are we going too far with design changes that are reacting to COVID, but that in two or three years may not be how people really want to live and interact?"

The Building Owners and Managers Association estimates only 10 to 15% of Minnesota workers have returned to the office so far. With that percentage not expected to escalate dramatically until well into 2021, it pays for some developers to embrace their COVID construction changes now.

Even with COVID's uncertainty, "You are probably building what still will be utilized for years to come," said Sam Newberg, senior field research analyst at property management and leasing giant CBRE and a BOMA member.

Some Transwestern office-lease clients in Minnesota recently expanded conference rooms thinking they will need bigger collaborative spaces post COVID-19.

The idea being that employee's "individual work" will continue to be done from home while collaborative or project work will be the thing that draws staffers back to the office in clumps even after the virus subsides, said Transwestern Principal Erin Fitzgerald.

Of its 12 Twin Cities projects, Doran Cos. pivoted again this month, changing the blueprints for a Richfield apartment complex going up next to Lunds & Byerlys. Designers dumped plans for an open business center in the lobby and are instead building three individual offices.

Seeing the demand swell for apartment workspace during COVID, Doran added more indoor and outdoor co-working spaces for a Tonka Bay luxury apartment complex now under construction.

"Post-COVID, the only thing that will stick around is people will continue to work from home," said Tony Kuechle, Doran president of development.

Subtle COVID changes are also altering buildings where the workforce can't work remotely.

Oppidan Investment, the senior-housing developer that broke ground on its sixth senior-housing complex in Minnesota one month ago, is adding a screening/locker room with showers for staffers at each of its new properties because of the pandemic. The room will become the new entrance for all staffers.

"We are doing that in Grand Rapids [Minn.] and in all of our [other] new communities," in California and on the East Coast, said Oppidan President Blake Hastings. "It's another step to keep [our workers] safe. So if they are concerned about bringing anything [virus-related] home, they can shower on site and change clothes before leaving work. It gives them a place to decompress and allows us a place to screen these teammates [before] coming into work."

Oppidan is also adding sinks in its resident hallways so aides can wash hands more frequently, Hastings said.

The vaccine won't be widely available for months so this is "the right thing to do," even if it costs more, Hastings said, noting that each new staff locker room will cost the same as adding one senior apartment to each building.

Offices, factories and other industrial builders are taking a different page from health care property managers and installing hospital-grade heating and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) that also purify the air. Murphy Warehouse in Minneapolis recently installed sterilizing UV lights in all its rooftop air systems. Those who sell the units are swamped with inquiries.

"We are definitely selling and shipping more units with the higher-efficiency filters today than ever before and we are shipping orders with the [air-sterilizing] UV lights definitely more than ever before," said Jim Macosko, product general manager at HVAC-maker Daikin Applied Americas.

Daikin, a Japanese firm with two factories in Faribault and one in Owatonna, sees demand spiking for three technologies it can embed in its Minnesota-made HVAC systems. It's using more Merve 13 and 14 air filters or embedding UV lights to trap or kill germs.

Separately, it's also starting to install bipolar ionization equipment in some HVAC systems. Ionization electrically charges air particles and neutralizes bacteria and viruses.

Daikin has yet to install the systems at its own Minnesota factories but has bolstered air-exchange rates and now runs air filters 24/7 not just during work hours, Macosko said.

Even with the arrival of a coronavirus vaccine, high-tech air-purification systems will not fall out of favor after COVID-19 is gone, he said. After all, "COVID won't be the last virus we have."

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COVID will leave lasting changes in Minnesota office and apartment projects - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A Boise developer hopes to add a small office and retail building to a block that will soon include two residential projects in the Downtown Boise core.

Weve been following the two apartment projects developed by Clay Carley and other groups on Grove St. between Fifth Street and Sixth Streets for the last few years. The related but separate projects, currently under construction, will bring a rent-restricted apartment project on the 6th St. side of the block known as Thomas Logan, as well as a market-rate apartment building on the 5th St. side dubbed The Lucy. The two buildings will share a plaza in the middle along Grove St.

[19-story condo tower planned for Downtown Boise]

Now, an area previously designated for a pocket park will instead get a three-story commercial and office building, if a plan submitted to the City of Boise is approved.

The small site sits along 5th St., right behind the Chip Cookies building. The plan from Carley and developer GGLO for Fifth and Grove would include a retail space on the ground floor with two stories of office above.

Though the previously noted ground floor pocket park would go away they hope to include about the same amount of green space somewhere else: the roof.

The vegetated fescue roof, viewed from nearby buildings, draws inspiration from the Boise Foothills in the distance, an application letter from GGLO notes.

Renderings show a series of shaggy green plantings on the roof of the building.

The larger form has an open floorpan for users, with large open windows facing east to the park across the street, and to the west, GGLO wrote. Internally, the building provides flexible spaces with large openings to the street, with exposed floor and roof structures. The exposed wood joist ceilings on each level give the open spaces a colorful richness and natural textures that will be visible from street level.

A public hearing on the project is set for January 13th at 6pm. Participants can testify in person or online. Due to limitations with the City of Boises online permit system, we cannot link you to the hearing notice, but if you click this link, then click Documents, then navigate to page 4, then select PDS-Legal Notice DR_HYBRID MEETING LEGAL NOTICE 1-13-2021 you can find further details.

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Three-story office building proposed to slide in between apartments, alley in Downtown Boise - boisedev.com

A jump in apartment construction projects in November boosted the tight supply of homes in the booming US real estate market, according to government data released Thursday.

With borrowing rates at record lows during the Covid-19 pandemic, home sales have been one of the bright spots in the US economy, pushing prices higher and challenging builders to keep up with demand.

Total housing starts rose 1.2 percent compared to October to a 1.55 million seasonally-adjusted annual rate, the Commerce Department reported.

That was slightly better than economists had expected, and a solid result heading into winter when construction usually slows.

Building initiated on multi-family units jumped eight percent, while single-family starts rose just 0.4 percent, according to the report.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the total increase was a slight disappointment, but the 6.2 percent surge in building permits -- also concentrated in apartment buildings -- points to another increase in December, and a jump in home sales in the spring.

"All these numbers -- but especially starts -- are erratic from month-to-month, but the key point here is that construction activity has not yet fully caught up with the surge in housing activity, leaving room for modest further gains," he said in an analysis.

Housing starts in the Northeast more than doubled last month, while activity fell in the South and Midwest, according to the report.

hs/cs

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US apartment construction boosts housing supply in November - Yahoo News

Some of the City of Fishers major construction projects will be finished in 2021, including the 146th Street and Ind. 37 interchange and the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel under 116th Street, among others.

146th Street and Ind. 37 will be the citys major road construction project for next year.

Fadness

Mayor Scott Fadness acknowledges that 2020 was a prolific year for road construction in the city.

It was a very busy year in terms of road improvements, Fadness said. In 2021, there will be a bit of a rest. The only major road infrastructure project youll see in Fishers next year is 146th Street and State road 37 under serious construction.

Earlier this year, 126th Street and Ind. 37 opened as part of the State Road 37 Project.

Fadness said the most disruptive portion of the Nickel Plate Trail will be tackled in 2021.

That is the 116th tunnel being built, he said. For a period of time, 116th Street will be closed to traffic as we build that tunnel. Our hope is to see significant work done on the Nickel Plate Trail in the downtown area in the near future, and at the end of next year, we expect to see that trail open from 106th Street to 131st Street.

Some stretches of the trail on the south side and north side are complete, and the 116th Street tunnel will connect to those stretches.

Its always the most complicated work is the downtown trail section, but at the end of that, we will have world-class infrastructure, Fadness said.

In the spring, 116th Street will close. Fadness said crews will work when schools arent in session.

The first phase of the Geist Waterfront Park will begin next year.

There will be a lot of activity out there. The beach, the parking lot, the restrooms, the gate, the entranceway are all parts of that first phase, Fadness said.

Fadness said the city plans to open Geist Waterfront Park in the spring of 2022. The project will go to bid in February or March. Three phases are planned, but the park will be fully functional after the first phase.

Construction of First Internet Bank and CRG Residential will continue in 2021. (Submitted renderings)

First Internet Bank will remain under construction in 2021, with completion planned for the end of next year. Fadness also said CRG Residentials downtown project will be under construction through all of 2021. CRG Residentials project is a five-story apartment building with 241 units, 10 townhomes, office and retail space along 116th, North and Maple streets. The project also will include a parking garage.

Another 116th Street project includes the Maple Del west of the Chatham Tap restaurant. Fadness said the project will break ground next year.

Our economic development team continues to work, so theres a lot of interest and activity on investing in our community, so I really am optimistic about 2021 when it comes to jobs and investment in our community, he said.

In 2021, the City of Fishers will launch a series programs to grow home ownership.

This is a new idea we are looking at for next year, Mayor Scott Fadness said. Theres a desire to see diversified housing stock in our urban core multi-family homes, new homes, single-family residential homes, so we are trying to work toward having a creative program in place to accelerate that opportunity.

Fadness also wants to refresh the citys sense of community.

Hopefully, as we clear COVID and are able to interact and engage as residents once again, I really hope we have a strong offering of opportunities for people to engage in their community as well as they did, if not better, than they did prior to the pandemic, Fadness said.

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Looking ahead: Fishers major projects in 2021 include the Nickel Plate Trail tunnel and First Internet - Current in Carmel