Parking Garage 091709

Wednesday
9am
Overcast

Construction has been underway at the new parking garage structure on campus. Just over a month ago an enclosing fence, runoff screen, and trailers were installed around the site. The site itself consists of an existing parking area. Trees and curbs were removed with excavators and dozers. Starting last week the caisson entourage showed up on site. Caissons will vary in size from two to four feet diameters. A crane and a caisson drill have begun drilling at the north west corner of the site. This photo was taken from the balcony of building across from the site.

The above photo shows the ReBar construction area. Workers use this space to build the caisson cages on site. This seems to be a space and labor intensive way to work. What is the cost/benefit of constructing on site as apposed to off-site and transporting it. It may have to do with paying for transportation twice (material to shop, shop to site).

The video shows the movement of the steel from the assembly to temporary storage area.

In observing the caisson drilling rig I noticed a safety cage which encircled the caisson excavation. This safety cage was roughly waist height and obviously meant to protect workers on the ground from falling in to the pit. Today I observed the drill rigs space needs. The caisson drilled is parallel or in-line with the tract. To the left was a spoil pile where the drill would shake loose soil (which appeared to be a shale of some sort) and to the right were some additional bits which could be swapped out when needed.
Note to self: consider safety enclosure for caisson, spoil area, removal of spoil, extra drill bits. Also there appeared to be a barrel of oil on the drilling rig which seemed to allow easy access to the drill apparatus.

Site Visit 11-17-08

Monday 11/17/08
7:55 am
30 degrees
overcast

Click to view Picasa Web Album of Today's Site Visit

Cold morning. The scaffolding at the north-west corner of the site has been relocated to the stairwell in the south-west corner. According to the scaffolding inspection sticker, it was taken down on the 16th and back in service by this morning (17th). A while back I was told that the scaffold is inspected on a daily basis and workers are not permitted to use the scaffolding unless it has been inspected and signed off on.

At the north side of the building a heavy highway crew and their Volvo EC330BLC(http://www.volvo.com/constructionequipment/na/en-us/products/excavators/crawlerexcavators/introduction.htm) were handling steam pipes stored at the north-west corner. Two men were securing the hoist cables, one of them would guide the pipe as it was raised and walk with it over to the north-east corner. (Why the pipes hadn't been stored or delivered according to where they would be needed? Is it too difficult to coordinate the delivery?) I was told by a worker that the steam pipes needed to have welded connections. I am curious to see how they manage to weld all the way around a steam pipe fitting.

Walking around the site to the south side I noted a couple of things that struck out at me. First, I saw two PVC pipes leading from the ceiling runs to the grade outside. I think is done for temporary drainage of the roof decks so water does not collect in work areas. Next, I saw the formwork for the utilities at the south-east corner outside the mechanical room. The rebar had been bent, cut and placed, suspended on half-a-brick. Finally, inside the mechanical room insulation installation had begun. A space heater was on making the electrical room feel very comfortable (but no workers were in the mechanical room). At the north-east corner of the mechanical room the stairs and landings installation has begun.

The landings are bolted to the north wall and suspended from a beam above at the south of the stairwell. The stair landing shown on the left has not been bolted yet and is supported by a winch and the tension bars.

Final Notes from visit: (1) Space heaters look like airplane jet engines and turn out a ton of heat (they can turn out almost 1,000,000 BTUs - http://www.heatershop.com/dual_fuel_gas_f1000t.html).

(2) Trench protection has been deliverd and is stored at the northern part of the site. The steel tubing spaning the trench protection on one side were not aligned with the steel tubing on the other. (3.) Stepped concrete platform poured in two rooms at south end of building. (Future locker rooms? - we shall see).

Next week is Thanksgiving Break, next report scheduled for 12-01-08 (or maybe this friday - I'm keeping my fingers crossed).