Tower excavation—lots happening! Concrete has been poured for many of the footings and some of the walls for our new tower. Last week concrete footings were poured in the bottom of the pit for the bases of the columns that support the entire weight of the tower above the larger lecture room. This week the columns themselves will be constructed. By Friday afternoon an area was being leveled so that the same large mobile crane that erected the tower crane can be set up in the bottom of the pit. From there it will unload steel and other materials used to construct the columns. Also this week the construction team expects to pour footings and walls at the northeast corner of the excavation. Depending on weather we hope for lots of progress by the end of the week. There will be traffic into and out of the construction site via the corner of Mills and University all week so avoid that area if you can.
Tower Crane. Friday night the mobile crane will move out of the excavation and into University Avenue in preparation for the second, more interesting, and more difficult phase of tower-crane erection: installation of the horizontal jibs. This will take place next Saturday, May 18. Most of the action will likely be Saturday morning, so early risers may be rewarded!
Mills Street. This week we expect a crew to remove the layer of stones that protects the flat roof over the second-floor labs on the Mills Street side of Daniels. Removal of stones is done by what amounts to a large vacuum cleaner and it makes a lot of noise. (The construction team postponed this work until after the end of the semester at our request.) Anyone working in the lower floors of Daniels will hear stones rattling through big hoses and the sound of the large machine that draws the vacuum.
Chemistry Learning Center. On Friday the staff of the learning center and members of the facilities committee went through the final plans for the Chemistry Learning Center’s new facility in the Medical Sciences Building (diagonally across University Avenue and Charter Street from our building). An excellent set of plans has been developed by Aro Eberle Architects. If all goes well with approvals and bidding, the CLC should be able to move to its new facility by summer 2020. With all-new teaching rooms, offices, and workroom the CLC will have great space for all its functions
Sub-Basement. In the sub-basement of Daniels the work on electrical/communications conduits and drains is now complete and last week excavations were made for footings that will support walls that will delineate new rooms in the northeast corner. This week concrete will be poured for the footings. Then the floor will be leveled and new concrete poured. Soon thereafter the new walls will go up.
Loading Dock. There are no scheduled loading-dock closures this week, but the crane that was in place Friday afternoon will need to move to the excavation area during the week, which will block the driveway for a short time. There will almost certainly be other short interruptions.
This information is up to date as of Friday afternoon. Email bulletins will be provided as needed.
John Moore and Bob McMahon