New Tower. Last week concrete was finally poured for what will be part of the basement floor in the tower. After being postponed from the week before, scheduled for Tuesday, rescheduled for Wednesday, and re-rescheduled, the concrete was finally poured last Thursday. The concrete pump truck was in the loading-dock area from early in the morning until about 11:30 am, during which time a parade of concrete delivery trucks came into and out of the loading-dock driveway. When fully extended, the arm of the pump truck is longer than Shain tower is tall.
The area where concrete was poured includes the floor of a mechanical room behind (west of—toward “The Crossing”) the 360-seat lecture room. This floor is above a ramp in the sub-basement that provides access to the rear of the lecture room. Also included were floors for the west side of the basement corridor, basement rest rooms, and electrical and communications rooms.
Elsewhere in the tower excavation, rebar and concrete forms were being erected for both stairwells and for the elevator shafts. The stairwells are at the southeast and southwest corners of the building—the tops of the west stairwell forms can easily be seen from the loading dock. The two elevator shafts will house four elevators and are located just north of the remaining part of the Daniels wing. We expect concrete to be poured for the elevator shafts up to the first-floor level and for the bottoms of the elevator shafts sometime this week (depending on weather). The smaller concrete volume required for these walls can be handled by buckets and will not require a pump truck.
Analytical Study Space. Last week we attended a kickoff meeting for renovation of space in the Medical Sciences Center (MSC) that will become study space for analytical chemistry students during the next year and a half and then will become study space for general chemistry students after analytical chemistry moves to its permanent home in the new tower. When analytical chemistry labs moved to temporary space in the MSC there was no provision for space equivalent to the Study Room on the first floor of Daniels and student had to find places to do their outside-of-class group work. This small renovation project provides such space.
Mock-up. The mock-up in parking lot 45 is where building techniques are tested to make certain they will produce what the design team envisioned (and what we want—a top-notch building). The second floor of the mock-up tested the voided-slab concrete technique and showed that a good concrete surface can be obtained. Columns and a wall were recently built on the second floor and this past week supports and concrete forms for a roof were added. We expect the roof to be poured this week, which will require a concrete pump truck in lot 45.
Loading Dock. There are no loading-dock closures scheduled this week. There may be short interruptions at unpredictable times. Remember that a four-day closure (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) is planned for September 12 – 15 so that the driveway to the loading dock can be paved with asphalt.
This information is up to date as of Friday afternoon. Email bulletins will be provided as needed.
John Moore and Bob McMahon