InsideTheMile

With Red White and Boom in the rearview mirror, it’d be nice if there were a few more twinkling lights downtown. It’s pretty.

Enter the Scioto Mile’s fountain. It’s much more than a water feature; it’s also a glowing celebration of illumination, courtesy of its LED display. There are low voltage underwater fixtures planted all over the fountain.

LED is more than just an acronym (the letters stand for “light-emitting diode”), it’s a technology that was first put into use fifty years ago. Back in the day, red was the only color LED lights could make. The Scioto Mile’s modern fixtures are designed to shine light in any conceivable color. That’s right, any hue you can imagine and a few you never ever thought of: that’s how the modern, energy-efficient LED world works.

This time of year, the lights will be choreographed with the fountain, to play off the water and the fog.

In the wintertime, it’s a whole new ballgame. The glittery LED lights take center stage, and really shine as they bounce amazing colors off of the fountain’s stainless steel halos.

So instead of Christmas in July, the Columbus Scioto Mile will have Independence Day in December.

While the Scioto Mile is the perfect urban oasis for the lazy days of summer, it’s also a fully functional fitness facility.

After all, who wants to be cooped up in a sweaty ol’ gym when we could be outside exercising in the fresh riverside air? 

Sure, the Mile’s not quite ready to host a full-fledged marathon. Still, Fit Club’s fitness guru, Mitch Potterf, has plenty of workout ideas for when the big park makes its debut in June of 2011. 

In fact, he’s created a special preview Scioto Mile Fitness Routine just for our readers.  He suggests a series: five push-ups (you remember those from grade school), followed by ten squats (that’s a little like a knee bend), and then run the length of the Promenade (the Scioto Mile’s grand esplanade that runs from Town to Broad Street).

Sounds easy enough, until Potterf adds, “Do five rounds, for time.”  

It’s a good thing there’s almost a year to get in shape before the Scioto Mile opens.  It’s also a good thing that the Promenade plans call for plenty of benches in the colonnades and cool, moving water canals you can dip your feet in . . . we might need a little break.

Curious about trying the workout for yourself? Check out the video for Potterf’s live coaching at the Scioto Mile site [video].

This steel structure makes the grade.

If you’ve ever had to gift-shop for a cooking snob, you already know this little nugget: when it comes to pots and pans, stainless steel is the Holy Grail. It’s prized for its looks, its durability and its rust-free stability.

For the real metal-head, we add this fact: some stainless steels are more special than others. Consider Grade 316. As a manufacturing site explains, it’s “the standard molybdenum-bearing grade, second in importance to 304 amongst the austenitic stainless steels.”

In case you don’t recall the details from chemistry class in high school, “molybdenum” can be found on the periodic table of elements (it’s #42, right below chromium). The other fancy term, “austenitic” refers to the fact that 316 is a compound metal that involves more than one element.

In other words, grade 316 stainless steel is an engineered metal, and it’s engineered for superior performance. The majestic fountains on the Scioto Mile use this superior metal because it can withstand pressure, hot temperatures, cold temperatures, salt and all sorts of natural conditions and corrosives. Grade 316 stainless steel can weather anything, and last for the ages.

You’ll see Grade 316 stainless steel high-up on the fountains. The special metal comprises the big circles that hold the nozzles. While it’s not officially the “Holy Grail,” the engineers do refer to the spouting circles as “the halos” . . . which sounds like heaven to us.

It happens almost every day: one of the engineers on the Scioto Mile team whips out a nerd-word that is simply breathtaking. Consider “Equipotential Bonding.”

Granted, it’s two words – so it’s a phrase. The process it describes is odd and unwieldy: the construction team takes a continuous copper wire and wraps it around all the working parts of the Scioto Mile fountains. Though the practice sounds a little strange, the result of this process is nothing short of a scientific miracle.

In wrapping the copper wire, the team is bonding the parts of the fountain together; it’s creating an electrical path. The outcome of this bonding is to bring all the objects to the same potential. Electricity can only flow when there’s a difference in potential, so this practice keeps us all safe on the Scioto Mile.

Teams do the same bonding at public pools. It’s a safety procedure for any water feature, a neutralizer.

Bonus points for knowing the difference between being “bonded” and “grounded”: most of us are more familiar with “grounding” – but that process involves connecting a charge to the earth (literally, the earth’s ground).

Bonding doesn’t require an earth connection – and that makes it a superior safety measure. The ground on the planet earth is a wild card – it changes with the weather (literally, the soil can turn to dust in the summer, and is muddy in the rain).

Bonding relies on the unflinching nature of metal itself. There’s nothing shocking about this process at all.

But the fountains themselves? So electrifyingly gorgeous they’ll send a thrilling little tingle up your spine.

How hot is the Scioto Mile in June?

It’s hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch. It’s hotter than Helen Hotter. It’s as hot as a fur coat in the tropics . . .

It’s really hot out there. And yet, even without the comforts of office air conditioning, the crew labors on. How do they do it?

1) Start early. When most of us are just thinking about getting up, the Mile’s crew is already at work. They are at the site, on the job by 7 am.  The early arrival means that the team can call it a day around 3:30pm – right as the sun gets heated up.

When the Scioto Mile gets HOT, HOT, HOT these workers say, "No sweat!"

2) Drink drink drink. You’re familiar with the office water cooler? Construction sites have their own water coolers they haul on site for hydration.  Those hard hats the team wears are a safety requirement, but the things can get pretty toasty.

3) BYOB. Lots of workers prefer BYOB – bring your own bottle. In fact, if the company water doesn’t hit the spot, products like Gatorade can make a difference on a hot day. The sporty stuff is fortified with electrolytes – specifically, the minerals sodium, potassium and chloride. We lose those little electrolytes in perspiration, and amped up drinks help replenish what the heat takes away.

 At least they won’t have to worry about snow.