Interesting Infrastructure: Caltrans and Music Notes

These photos are from Cotati, CA in the northern bay area. As you can see, Caltrans incorporated a music note motif into their new overpass project. Since Cotati is sort of a hippie town, and also home of an annual Accordian Festival, it fits the local vibe. The motif has a treble clef sequence and a bass clef sequence, and they appear on the sound walls, the retaining walls and on the actual overpass. I alternate between thinking this is really cool and thinking it is a huge waste of money, but here are the pics anyway:

Sound wall in final stages of project

Overpass with alternating design

Interesting Infrastructure: Mouse shaped wetland

Check out this satellite imagery from Petaluma, California, a city of about 60,000 people in the northern bay area. The city completed construction of a new wastewater treatment plant, the Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility, in 2009 and they included some polishing ponds which had a very interesting shape. Environmental artist Patricia Johnson worked with the city and their consultants to make this wetland park a unique piece of artwork. The shape is a reference to the harvest field mouse, an indigenous species in the area near the Petaluma River. You can see the actual treatment facility towards the top right of the image.

Mouse shaped wetland: Raw image

Mouse shaped wetland: Mouse outlined