The Week of January 22, 2018 — The Shadow Continues to Expand Over “B” Level and the Project Goes Vertical

As a new week begins, the shadow over the north half of “B” level continues to expand as the ironworkers make their way east covering the spline beams, girders, and nodes with metal corrugated decking. The mechanical pipe welders will continue to weld sections of pipe together on the concrete floor and when completed hoist the pipes up to rest on the brackets, hung from stirrups, and/or roller hangers to be welded to the existing pipes. The electricians will continue installing pull-through conduits to provide electricity to the man lifts and temporary peripheral lighting down in the pit as well as string lighting under the metal decking.

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK TOOK PLACE ON JANUARY 25. RIGHT AFTER LUNCH, THE FIRST OF THE COLUMNS WERE ERECTED. THE COLUMN IS THREE-STORIES TALL AND WEIGHED IN AT 12 TONS. AS ONE OF THE IRONWORKERS SAID: “WE ARE NOW GOING VERTICAL.” ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDANT MAX KLINGER REMARKED: “THIS IS A HUGE DAY!”

The first vertical column of the project is slowly cabled over the pit.

Under cloudy skies, column number one is lowered into place.

Under cloudy skies, around 12:40 PM, on January 25, 2018, the first column, a 12-ton column reaching a height of three stories, was swung out over the pit and placed in the southwest section of the first quadrant prepared to go vertical.

The top of the first column number 3433-27.

Ironworkers, Jason (right) and Cory (left) hand tighten the bolts holding column number one to the column base.

Detaching the hook from the column using a hickey.

The Anatomy of a HICKEY

Once a tall column is bolted in place, how does an ironworker detach the crane cable from the column? THEY USE A HICKEY!

The hickey is a metal clevis is placed through an eyehook, which is attached to the crane’s cable via the hook. The tang (or in this case the steel column with a pre-drilled hole) is placed within the clevis and the column is secured by a non-threaded clevis pin which is attached to a long rope. At the left: clevis number 1 can lift up to 55 tons. Clevis number 2 can lift up to 28 tons. Number 3 is the clevis pin for clevis number 2. Numbers 4 are the cables that attach to the cranes hook. Once the steel column is bolted in place, the crane operator allows a little slack in the cable and one of the ironworkers jerks the rope to detach the clevis pin as illustrated in the above video clip.

The clevis pin at the right, which is twice as large as the number 3 clevis pin shown in the photo above is used for clevis number 1 as shown above.

The third column that was installed was BRB (Buckling-restrained brace) flange column. A very ominous looking piece of steel. BRBs are the central columns to which BRB rectangular steel tubes are connected diagonally forming cross bracing between columns and floors. This type of system serves as a more balanced method to conventional bracing.

A BRB bracing system illustrated.

Actual BRB bracing components: In the foreground are a few square steel tube casings and in the background are two cylindrical steel tube casings.  These casing components will be installed as illustrated in the above photo.

A BRB column slowly glides over the pit.

The First BRB column is slowly lowered into place.

“Cowboys of the Sky:” Jason, Kenny, and Cory make their debut

Once the crane’s hook clears the space, the talented hard hats–whose intellect is matched by their raw nerves of steel, gutsy guts mixed with an extra measure of courage coupled with the strength of a lion on the prowl and the nimbleness of a bird on a wire–begin their narrow pathed performance: sometimes sitting, straddling, bending, stretching, reaching, and hammering as they cajole, foot-tap, and even arm wrestle a piece of iron into place. Hats off to these “Cowboys of the Sky!”

Jason cajoles the steel girder.

Jason ducks a steel girder.

Jason (left) and Cory (right behind the column) Maneuver the steel girder.

Jason bouncing (left) and Kenny poking an prying (right) the steel girder into place.

Once in place, Kenny must align the holes of the girder with the column. To do this he must use a sledgehammer to drive in a barrel draft pin. Jason keeps an eye out from behind.

Finally, the girder is in place. Kenny (left) listens to a fellow ironworker down below while Jason (right) disconnects the hook from the girder.

The transfer load spline beams now stretch beyond the halfway point as the steel placement moves east. The steel beams are now over halfway as the steel beams move south. Toward the end of the week, the crane on the south side will start placing spline beams on the rest of the isolators to the south. This section is just beyond the reach of the crane positioned on the north side.

Lowering a load of decking to the beams below.

The crane operator lowers the metal decking to the beams and girders on which the ironworkers will shake (ironworker lingo) out the metal decking over the beams and girders. These three-inch deep corrugated steel will be covered with a welded wire mesh, which adds additional strength to the floor when the light-weight composite concrete is poured. The total thickness of the concrete floor will be nine-inches including the three-inch corrugated metal decking.

Once all the spline beams have been bolted together and the decking scattered in place, the nodes which are anchored on top of the isolators will be filled with concrete.