Less than 48 hours to go till the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza dedication celebration – and Parks Department workers, under the direction of project manager Patrick Donohue, are racing to the finish of what was an incredibly short construction schedule – less than two months. As part of that, the statue itself is to be placed atop its new pedestal by day’s end – it’s already on site, resting in the back of a pickup truck (as shown above) on the north side of the construction site. Its current position affords a view that hopefully won’t have to be seen again – inside the statue from its base:
Right now, crews are working to be sure the new pedestal, its steel support, and the bronze lantern between pedestal and statue all fit together – they were built in different places at different times, in part because of the project’s time constraints. Also at the site, along with Donohue and his crew members, Plaza Project co-chairs Libby and Paul Carr, who are busy putting the final touches on the plan for Saturday’s all-day celebration (we’ve got one of the first copies of the official program; you can see the schedule online here); one data point they shared – if you bought a brick in the plaza, you will be able to find it easily on Saturday, because committee members David and Eilene Hutchinson (who have kindly shared great photos with WSB along the way) have catalogued the location of each brick, and a schematic will be available at a table by the plaza to direct brick-owners to the locations. 4:16 PM UPDATE: The statue has just been replaced atop its pedestal – so that’s what you’ll see if you come by Alki tonight – we’ll be adding more visuals a bit later – some paving work at the site is scheduled tomorrow morning, for finishing touches.
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