Carpet patterns final

Here are the various designs for the road carpets C1 to C5, showing position of planters and cycle racks. Each design varies slightly in order for the repeat to work out just right, and for yellow lines to fall in the right place as required by Thames Valley Police and Oxford City Works. Note that Carpet C1 will need to be substantially repaired following the city's patching, and the retro-reflective beading needs restoration as it did not adhere as it should have (we have since worked out how to fix this, some trouble was caused by rain and moisture).

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Map version 12

Some adjustments have been made since version 11 and the first works weekend. Please note the new position of carpet C3 which has shifted west by approximately 2.5m. This was done for a number of reasons having to do with comments from Thames Valley Police and Oxford City Works. For details, please register a comment on this blog and a member of the BCRA committee will answer it here.

DIY Street Works Weekend 1

From tape to tent, the first works weekend was a chance to work out nearly all the bugs from the process. Work finished at 12:30 AM in the rain. Thank goodness for the marquees. One passerby later told me that he thought it was a forensics team working late into the night trying to solve a murder on BCR. (From top to bottom): Mark Hull (BCRA Chair), Shirley Clark (BCRA Project Manager), Aidan Irwin-Singer and Will Glennerster measure up the masking for the painted 'carpet'; Will holds the measuring tape; Mark, Aidan, and Eric Brown paint in formation; Piers Clayden, Eric, and Graham Bray (BCRA Treasurer) at around 9:30PM, determined to see the job through; the youngest navvy on the job; the marquee at 11PM in the rain.

DIY Street Works Weekend 1

These photos feature Kevin Hanson, from Potters Europe, one of BCR DIY Streets' sponsors and suppliers of the high-index microbeads that give the scheme its nocturnal magic. His expertise and mucking-in assistance moved the project forward enormously, especially as he's the man who figured out a technique for evenly coating the fibreglass planters with microbeads and sand. The technique involves mixing sand and beads in a 50/50 mixture, putting the mixture into a hastily-made MDF sandpit, painting the road paint onto the planter and then quickly dipping the face of the planter into the sand/beads mixture like an ice-cream cone into a tray of sprinkles. It worked great. Genius!

DIY Street Sign-off Meeting

(Above, left to right) Finalising design details are Ted Dewan, Mark Haddon, Barrie Juniper from BCR, Dr. Jessica Pykett from Aberystwyth University taking notes and observing the process, Geoff Barrell (Oxfordshire County Council Highways and Transport Dept) and Shaun Hatton (Oxford City Works) who arranged for the potholes to be filled in just a week later.