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