The Concrete Foundation

Earlier this week I read an article about Nooruddin Karsan who is known in the IT world for selling a human-resources software company that he co-founded. He sold it to IBM for $1.3 billion. He now runs Karlani Capital and also offers management consulting to companies that are having problems. He’s a solver of big problems. The fee for this work is a mere $250,000. I first wondered what kind of problem is worthy of such a fee? I then realized that perhaps Chipotle Mexican Grill should give him a call.LH 2
The interior of the Lecture Hall is really starting to come together. The metal floor decking in Lecture Halls 2, 3 and 4 has been installed and this week we poured the concrete floors in those spaces. The attached photo shows the pouring and finishing in action in Lecture Hall 2. You can see the room will have three stepped levels and they are working on the second one. The concrete pumper has an arm and hose through the roof deck, one worker controls the placement of the concrete out of the hose, a couple of laborers rake it in place, another laborer is using a mechanical vibration tool to work out the air bubbles, two other workers use a screed to level out the concrete, and another guy (holding the long blue pole) does some detail leveling and finishing with what is called a bull float. After a couple of hours the new concrete sets up enough so they can get on it with the use of kneeboards and a couple of trowels to do more detailed finishing of the floor.

Last Friday’s major beam installation allowed for the grading inside Lecture Hall 1 to be completed this week. That now enables the concrete foundation to be poured in Lecture Hall 1 next week.
from southThe structural steel framing for the new Rotunda started this week and the metal decking for that area just began this morning.

Beginning next week a new temporary construction path will be installed along the front of Lab I. This path will allow for the expansion of the building towards Red Square while allowing construction access around the south and west of the Lecture Hall building. After that pathway goes in more excavation and foundation work will begin for the rest of the building addition. This path will eventually be constructed into a ramp that will provide access to Lab I and II from Red Square.

Cheers!
Tim

National Hot Sauce Day

Wow, it is Friday already! I love these four day work weeks, especially when the weather on the holiday isn’t half bad.

Do you know that today, January 22, 2016 is National Hot Sauce Day? Tomorrow is National Pie Day? Sunday is National Compliment Day? I wonder what National Hot Sauce tastes like?

There will be some construction activity on the Lecture Hall project tomorrow, so don’t be surprised to hear the metal decking guys hammering if you stop by campus tomorrow after picking up your National Pie. Other activity will be some concrete pouring of the floor structure inside new Lecture Halls 2, 3 and 4. The steel erectors will start framing the new floor structure for the rotunda area. The large curved concrete wall that will enclose the Lecture Hall 1 addition will also be poured.

Our own faculty member, Bob Haft, was out on site with me taking numerous photos of the crane work and beam installation on Wednesday. I haven’t seen any of those photos yet, so I have included my own photo LH1of this beam after all the work that was needed to get it installed; see attached. It took about two hours for the crane to set up, about an hour to remove the shoring, get the beam set and bolted in place, and then remove the crane cables supporting the upper wall. Then it took between one to two hours for the crane to demobilize and head back to the shop. That is a enormous amount of work for one beam.

Enjoy the sun while you can!

Cheers,
Tim

Don’t Throw Away Those Earplugs Yet

Hello all,
We will have a lot of activity tomorrow (January, 15th) related to the Lecture Hall construction that I want you to be aware of before Friday begins. A whole bunch of mechanical units are due for delivery tomorrow and will be craned into the lower level of the lecture hall. We will have flaggers out coordinating the trucks driving in for this delivery, but we want to make extra you sure you are extra aware of these activities. I beg of you to please keep your smart phone in your pocket and your head up while you are walking, running, skateboarding, rolling in your wheel chair, hovering on your hoverboard, or Segging on your Segway while in the vicinity of the bus loop and the construction entrance off Red Square. Please believe me, that latest text message or Tweet about me can wait! Be safe!!!

There will be a lot of other activities next week, some include the use of a very large crane. Yes, a crane capable of lifting 185 tons will be on site on Wednesday to support theUPPER WALL SUPPORT remaining portion of an exterior wall at Lecture Hall 1 while temporary shoring is removed and the new permanent structure supporting it is installed. All you Facebook show-offs will want to invest in a selfie-stick for this day. You definitely will not want to miss this photo opportunity to share with all your friends. More concrete saw cutting is also in store, so don’t throw away those earplugs yet.

Have a great three-day holiday weekend! I will honor MLK Jr. with spending time with my family, whether they like it or not.

Cheers,
Tim

Wanting What You Get

Hello, it’s me! No, it’s not Adele, it’s me!

I don’t know about you, but I’m really, really, really glad the whole winter holiday season is over. Whether you are into Christmas, Kwanza, Festivus, Hanukkah, or none of those things, it is over for another year! On with everyday life!

At the same time I wonder about what I’ve succeeded with in this past year. What I really wanted a year ago was a new job. Six months ago from this week I started a new job working here at Evergreen. I recently read a quote credited to novelist W.P. Kinsella that is poignant and timely for me. Here it is: “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.” I Googled this quote and Dale Carnegie is also credited with it. Donald Trump will probably claim it is his, so who knows which one is due credit, but I still like it.

On the Lecture Hall project yesterday we had some more concrete work continuing the infill of openings in existing concrete walls. On the attached photo you can see we really tested the limits of the concrete pumper. The arm of the truck is stretched out over 75-feet to get the concrete to an infill wall at what will be Lecture Hall 2. I took this panoramic shot with my phone, the steel beams and decking in the foreground appear to be bent; they are not.pumper

Next week the concrete saw cutters will be back cutting away the buttresses in Lecture Hall 1 so the the expansion of that space may take place. I’ve heard some complaints regarding the metal deck guys and their noisy hammering. The good news (as I see it) is the saw cutting noise will probably drown out that darn hammering noise. We will also start to see the installation of new steel beams for the new rotunda area. Metal floor decking installation will continue. Placement of footings for the building addition facing Red Square will begin.

That’s it for now. Happy New Year!
Tim