I had hoped to post an update on the Lecture Hall construction last Thursday, but time got away from me, and before you know it I had to hit the road. I neede to drive to SeaTac and pick up my Mom so that we could attend another milestone in my life. My one an only daughter graduated from Olympia High School on Thursday. I then took Friday off to spend some time with visiting family members. Anyhow, the weekend is over and I’m finally able to give you a much needed construction update.

Today was the start of concrete flatwork. Flatwork in construction mostly refers to concrete work outside the building and is considered site work. So, this morning the concrete pumper arrived promptly at 7 AM and the concrete truck showed up shortly thereafter.

Formwork for the flatwork had been setup towards the end of last week. Placing of the concrete (aka: mud) and finishing of it began today. Here is what an area looked like with just the formwork:

Flatwork forms

And a few hours later it was looking a whole lot better:

Installed flatwork

Some of this work also entailed a set of stairs leading off the back of Lecture Hall 1 and the new Classroom behind Lecture Hall 1. They were about halfway done pumping the concrete into the stairs formwork when it started to bow out:

Stairway pour

It isn’t really noticeable in the above photo, but all the workers saw what was happening and feared the form might blow out and create a real headache. Anyway, with quick thinking and action they moved the versatile four-wheel drive forklift over to the stairway and lodged a piece of wood against the form and managed to push the formwork back into place:

Forklift as extra brace

A few extra braces were also added and a crisis was averted for today!

Other new things you might notice is window framework and glazing for the windows has begun. The windows will continued to be installed over the next week or two. Here is the one at Workshop 2 that faces Red Square:

Workshop 2 windows

Next week our new metal siding is due to arrive on site. It will be exciting to see that go up and the exterior finishes start to all come together.

That is it for now. I hope to provide another update late next week.

Have a great week and happy solstice!

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093

Yes, at last we have come to the day of the last concrete pour for the interior floor of the Lecture Hall project. These were all areas that also contain hydronic piping for the radiant slab heating system. I’ve been very concerned with these areas because we also have steel rebar that is placed over the hydronic piping. Our contractor at first just laid the steel rebar directly on top of the plastic piping; essentially the pipe was supporting the rebar. Well I questioned why it was not supported by chairs (or dobbies). After a little of discussion with our contractor, and talking with the manufacturer of the piping, it was determined the rebar had to be set above the piping. Anyway, we have a skookum installation on our hands. Here are some photos from today’s work.

Entry

Rotunda

Rotunda to LH 1 ramp

LH 1 ramp

Outside Classroom 2

I was also joined for a while this morning by Evergreen faculty member and photography buff Bob Haft. Here is my photograph of the photographer in action.

Photograph of the photographer

I also took a journey up to the top of the Evergreen Clock Tower today on an issue related to the clocks for campus and the Lecture Hall. I took the opportunity to get a nice aerial shot from that location. You can see the concrete truck feeding the pumper truck and the long arm of the pumper reaching into the Lecture Hall.

From Clock Tower

In that shot you can also see one of the carpenters installing the wood decking over the glulam beams by the entry to the Lecture Hall.

All together it was a very productive day. The crew that does the concrete leveling and finishing work are an amazing team. I could tell they have been working together for a long time being they don’t even need to talk to each other while they do there thing. Bob Haft noticed the same thing.

Anyway, I intended to get out a construction digest update last week but I got pulled away to do a tour of the Lecture Hall for my colleagues in the Facilities office. It was a good day to so last Friday being all the construction workers took off at noon to start their holiday weekend early. I’ve been giving so many tours to various groups that I am starting to thing my job title should be “Tour Guide”. I probably won’t be providing an update next week being next Friday is graduation. There will not be any construction going on that day so the festivities may take place without the disruption of construction activity. Anyway, congratulations to all the students and faculty to making it to the last day of classes! I’m sure it is a great relief to make it this far.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Tim

Timothy Byrne

Project Manager

Facilities Services

The Evergreen State College

360-867-6093