New Haven Independent

After a 6 a.m. start and some sweat to get the hoisting crane secure in West River park muck, the 15-person crew from Stamford Wrecking with help from contracted Smedley erectors got the first truss set in the west pier. The task now was to back the next two trusses into the Barnard School site…

secure them in slings from the crane…

For rotating upright

and hoisting…

and guide them out of the way onto waiting wooden cribbing without dinging trees or telephone poles —

or over-exciting Diesel, the J.W. Jones trucking company dog, who after three-plus days on the road wanted in on the action.

Before the crew could quit, there was the other end-piece to fit into the east pier, connecting back to the abutment spot in the school building.

By 2 p.m. the city cops on traffic-duty were thinking about their shift’s end. “I’ve got to go fight crime from 4 to 12!” said Ron “The Ironman” Pressley, Jr (pictured behind Officer Sam Streater).

The real action will come next month, after the two mid-section trusses have been spliced together and doctored with rafters and roofing, window-frames and wall panels, to be hoisted together over the boulevard as a covered pedestrian bridge. Or maybe next fall when 619 Barnard elementary students flood back into their nature center-equipped school, after its $43 million-dollar renovation. But curious Ella Grasso Blvd neighbors like Ron Mckinley (pictured) seemed to think Thursday’s was a pretty good show, too.