Tuesday, June 27, 2006
If I was in Florida yesterday, then today I was at the ballet.
After 32 day of preparation, the slab was poured today in a mere 3 hours. Voegeli Concrete Construction showed up and started pouring concrete at 5:30AM - 30 minutes before the web cam even comes online! And to watch them at work was incredible! I have never seen a construction crew work together so tightly to do such a large job as quickly as these guys. I have to admit, the pastor in me was quickly reminded of Paul writing in Corinthians 12 that in Christ we are all one body, but many parts. These guys operated like a Borg collective, connected by brain waves and operating like one entity! (Whoa - there's a first for me: Paul and Borgs in the same paragraph! Resistance is futile!)
Here is how Voegeli spread over 185 yards of concrete in 3 hours: A huge(!) Schwing concrete boom pump truck from Brundage-Bone was filled in one end by the concrete trucks, and then pumped it up and over to the worksite. The pump truck never moved - it was large enough to reach the entire site from one position! A man with a remote control would "steer" the concrete-producing boom exactly where it was needed, while 10-15 guys started spreading it out.
One guy moved the concrete nozzle where it needed to go. Two other guys would lift up the wire mesh (laid out over the plastic yesterday) and embed it into the freshly poured concrete. Five or six guys had special rakes (kind of like a garden rake without the teeth) and would push and pull the cement where it needed to go. Two more guys took a long (aluminum?) board and smoothed out the surface of the cement.
Then the smoothing operation begun. First a man with a huge sweeper (6 feet wide, 15-20 feet long) made the first pass, taking the concrete to within 1/4 of an inch level. Then big "buffers" started their rounds, making it even smoother. After the buffers, came the cool riding buffers! This is where the ballet started. Six of these were going at the same time in a strange dance that made the concrete as smooth as glass. All we needed was a little classical music and those cool hand-held glasses, and I would have been expecting Swan Lake to appear before my eyes! All the while, other men were "floating" on the cement, smoothing around pipes and pier cap boxes.
After the concrete was smoothed and finished, it was sealed. This sealer will hold in the moisture of the concrete longer, causing curing to slow and the finished product to be harder. The entire slab was sealed, except the area where the 5th and 6th grade rooms will be located. These areas were covered and sealed with plastic. They will eventually be color stained instead of carpeted for a unique look. To finish the job, joints were cut into the concrete slab to give it room to shrink and expand in this wonderful Kansas weather.
Other jobs were happening today as well. Rick's Dozer continued to prepare the new driveway around the expansion. The new city water line trench was started (sorry, Scott, we hit another sprinkler irrigation line), which will eventually go to and under Monroe Street. Voegeli also constructed the forms that will be the new retaining wall.
For those who were wondering, yes - my initials did make it into the slab. Somewhere.
Today's Picture Gallery (38 pictures)
After 32 day of preparation, the slab was poured today in a mere 3 hours. Voegeli Concrete Construction showed up and started pouring concrete at 5:30AM - 30 minutes before the web cam even comes online! And to watch them at work was incredible! I have never seen a construction crew work together so tightly to do such a large job as quickly as these guys. I have to admit, the pastor in me was quickly reminded of Paul writing in Corinthians 12 that in Christ we are all one body, but many parts. These guys operated like a Borg collective, connected by brain waves and operating like one entity! (Whoa - there's a first for me: Paul and Borgs in the same paragraph! Resistance is futile!)
Here is how Voegeli spread over 185 yards of concrete in 3 hours: A huge(!) Schwing concrete boom pump truck from Brundage-Bone was filled in one end by the concrete trucks, and then pumped it up and over to the worksite. The pump truck never moved - it was large enough to reach the entire site from one position! A man with a remote control would "steer" the concrete-producing boom exactly where it was needed, while 10-15 guys started spreading it out.
One guy moved the concrete nozzle where it needed to go. Two other guys would lift up the wire mesh (laid out over the plastic yesterday) and embed it into the freshly poured concrete. Five or six guys had special rakes (kind of like a garden rake without the teeth) and would push and pull the cement where it needed to go. Two more guys took a long (aluminum?) board and smoothed out the surface of the cement.
Then the smoothing operation begun. First a man with a huge sweeper (6 feet wide, 15-20 feet long) made the first pass, taking the concrete to within 1/4 of an inch level. Then big "buffers" started their rounds, making it even smoother. After the buffers, came the cool riding buffers! This is where the ballet started. Six of these were going at the same time in a strange dance that made the concrete as smooth as glass. All we needed was a little classical music and those cool hand-held glasses, and I would have been expecting Swan Lake to appear before my eyes! All the while, other men were "floating" on the cement, smoothing around pipes and pier cap boxes.
After the concrete was smoothed and finished, it was sealed. This sealer will hold in the moisture of the concrete longer, causing curing to slow and the finished product to be harder. The entire slab was sealed, except the area where the 5th and 6th grade rooms will be located. These areas were covered and sealed with plastic. They will eventually be color stained instead of carpeted for a unique look. To finish the job, joints were cut into the concrete slab to give it room to shrink and expand in this wonderful Kansas weather.
Other jobs were happening today as well. Rick's Dozer continued to prepare the new driveway around the expansion. The new city water line trench was started (sorry, Scott, we hit another sprinkler irrigation line), which will eventually go to and under Monroe Street. Voegeli also constructed the forms that will be the new retaining wall.
For those who were wondering, yes - my initials did make it into the slab. Somewhere.
Today's Picture Gallery (38 pictures)
