Current Construction

[KD Talbot]

Is the scar where they laid the power line still very visible, or is it healing?

KDT

[JimS]

I haven't looked closely at it yet as far as vegitation, but I'm eager to. The scar is visible from the great swimming hole on Cog's Base Road, but that may simply be a perminant scar due to the movement of rocks and the change of terrain. Vegitation is much more ecologically important, and I'll let you know.

[KD Talbot]

My recollection of the summit landmarks are a little off. The construction is not really in the Cow Pasture, but above it at a turn out just below the oil tanks

I emailed Mike Pelchat before Jim gave me the answer. Here is a part of what Mike's response was, confirming Jim's answer:

"White Mt Communications, who dug the trench next to the tracks and installed the power fiber optic cables was also hired by the Cog to pick up discarded railway timbers along the line. They started at the summit and have picked up all that debris now close to Skyline. What a big improvement in the looks of the summit and for the Cog operation. Once done in a week or so, they'll be installing more waterbars and putting the rocks back to hide the work road along the cog right of way. This is the same company that we hired to put in the summits new year round septic system. Its still in the design permitting stage but we are hopeful it will be installed this summer. Its a Lifewater Package Plant to be installed which has had great success in Alaska and other remote/cold locations: http://lifewaterengineering.com/Overview.htm
This system is being custom built for MWSP in Alaska, which will handle 5,000 gal a day. Our fiber optic line has been tested and is awaiting equipment to build us a network. The power been fairly stable since a battery of regulators where installed in Twin Mt last march. Although we did have an outage on Monday when a limb took out two phases near the Mt Washington Hotel. That line from 302 to Marshfield is the 2nd most outage prone power line segment in the state. So our generators have to be maintained and ready for back-up duty. Then we got buried fuel oil line upgrades between the buildings to install this summer along with new emergency generators and switchgear. So a busy construction season has started for the park!"

KDT

[Brad]

So, they are cleaning out the trackside debris?

[KD Talbot]

"Yes that's the old cog rr timbers holding area. They are not pressure treated ties but heavy pitched southern yellow pine. Still many have decades of cog grease and oil on them so its not appropriate to burn. WMC is hauling sand and gravel to the summit in 10 wheelers at night for other projects then the empty trucks have been taking the timbers from that heli-pad stock pile on their return trip.
We have been working closely with botanists and soil scientist from US Forest Service and our departments NH Natural History Inventory Bureau on how to best restore that power line/work road. It obvious that we cannot seed and mulch with valley grass in the Alpine Zone so were looking at other methods to encourage the local vegetation to take root. Fortunately Forest Service has some experience in this area in their work reclaiming illegal campsites in the Alpine Zone. Best thing for now after the construction equipment has moved off is to put it back as close as possible to its original condition (sans cog timbers) and let her rest, i.e. please don't hike it as an easy way to Cog Base."

KDT

[Steve M]

I'll bet it's going to look nice having all that stuff cleaned up. Also glad to hear of all the upgrades happening up there.

[Patrad Fischroy]

"White Mt Communications, who dug the trench next to the tracks and installed the power fiber optic cables was also hired...."

So they did install fiber when they brought up power. Does that mean that the observatory will be able to move over to that freom their microwave system anytime soon? I assume that they will still need it to pick up the Wildcat instruments, but it could provide much more bandwidth between the summit and the education center.

[Brad]

The key question is what and who would they connect to at the Base Station on that side of the mountain. Do they have the infrastructure in place to connect to N Conway?

[KD Talbot]

I don't know the answers to either of those questions, but I'll see if I can find out. I'll be away until Sunday. Should have an answer Monday at latest unless someone else can provide one.

KDT

[Knapper]

Does that mean that the observatory will be able to move over to that freom their microwave system anytime soon? I assume that they will still need it to pick up the Wildcat instruments, but it could provide much more bandwidth between the summit and the education center.

They did install fiber optics up to here. As of now, there isn't a fiber optic line to the cog base but it is in the plans from what I was told by state park but no set date. As to the obs going over to optics, it has been talked about but we will see the costs, reliability, and speed of using that compared to what we have now when it finally does make it up here. As to the wildcat question, that is on a seperate link so it is not taking away any significant bandwidth with the valley.