The foundation walls are going up quickly

The foundation walls are going up quickly. As the frames are pulled away, everyone can see just how large the building is destined to become. If you look at the picture below showing the front entrance, there is a large orange fence visible near the back of the lot. That area will become basement storage at the back of the building. Beyond tha fence, there will be a reading porch on the main floor. As more concrete is poured, the scope of this project will become more and more tangible. The construction manager forsees great strides being made within the next 30 days.


Here, you can see workers wasting no time to set up the next set of wall forms for the next pour.


Don't even think about stepping on the worksite without one of these official "ALLIANCE" hard hats.


More views of the interior foundation walls can be seen below. The recesses at the top of the wall will allow attachment of floor joists to the foundation.

From the inside, it doesn't look as small.

A muddy day . . .but progress is still made

It's official. The first section of wall in our new library has been poured. The inner form has been pulled away so that we may have a first glimpse. Since only the front section was poured, it seemed important to ask "How will the other walls attach to the front wall without creating weaknesses at the corners?" The answer is illustrated by pictures below.

In this picture of the corner of the poured concrete, you can see a notch traveling down the length of the wall. This notch is called a key. When the connecting wall is poured, the new concrete will fill in the wedge to lock the sections together. The rebar was also placed through the forms prior to pouring the first wall. These will also securely connect the two sections of wall. (For the record, the orange pieces are there to keep people from walking into the temporarily exposed rebar. This could ruin someone's day.)

This pictured shows the opposite corner. Here you can see what the concrete will eventually hide. These lattices of rebar will make the wall quite strong . The short pieces that stic out will connect the outer forms to the inner form to prevent the wall from expanding when concret is poured.

It's no wonder builing things take a while. This looks like a lot of work just to prepare the wall to be poured. . . but it's worth it!

The first wall has been poured!!!!

Wow! The first thing that I saw as I approached the site today was this long yellow crane arm moving into position. Evidently this is necessary to move the concrete from the cement truck to the front wall of the building.

Here you can see the operator positioning the arm with a remote control device. There were controls to move up, down, left, right, etc., but no TURBO. Still it is a very impressive toy.

Here another worker moves the nozzle to distibute the flow of concrete, watching closely to keep the coverage consistent.

Here other workers use a tool to vibrate the poured concrete inside the forms, reducing the chance for any voids in the wall.

Finally, a first look at the sign which will be displayed prominently at the worksite. Soon everyone will know about the new library that is coming.

Lots going on this week . . . I Promise

A lot has Happened on site this week. The most visible things involving drilling for the geothermal heat lines, drilling holes for caissons, and finishing forms for the front foundation od the building.

Below is a picture of the drilling truck used to set the geothermal lines 350 deep into the soil.

Here is a picture of some of the lines themselves. They will utilize the Earth's constant temperature to cool the builing in Summer and heat it in Winter saving lots of energy.

The two pictures below show the outer forms and the inner forms needed to create the shape of the foundation walls. The inner and outer sections are held together with rebar to prevent spreading when the concrete is poured. The concret should be poured by early next week. The form sections can then be pulled away revealing a permanent part of the building.

The remaining three photos are of the caisson drilling equipment. Part of the library structure will be over an area where the ground may swell and drop with the weather. To prevent damage to the foundation, holes must be drilled into the bedrock below and special columns called caissons poured. Some of these holes are as much as 14 feet deep. The foundation will rest on these caissons and prevent the builing from this damage.

Look at the size if this drill!!!

Buzzing with activity

WoW! Was it loud at the building site today, or what? There's a rather interesting red truck in the corner drilling for the library's geothermal systems. At the front of the site workers are inserting metal pins throught the front wall form. The site manager says that its a beutiful day for getting things done. Another piece of equipment will be on site within a few days to drill out the caisson support structures. It's amazing that it takes so much noise and chaos to create something that everyone thinks will be so quiet.