The Week of May 13, 2018–A New Crane Also Named “Cheese”

This week we celebrate the fact that the concrete foundation floor is no longer visible from grade, except down to the bottom of the moat, which surrounds the building. Section four 4 now has the corrugated metal decking for the flooring over “B” level. A year ago excitement was in the air to get the last section of the four-foot concrete foundation poured. Now, the foundation is covered by decking over “B” level is now, which will no longer see the light of day. As of today, the structure has a basement where all of the seismic resistant elements–base isolators, and dampers– are hidden from view, yet through modern engineering poised to resist and minimize damage to the building during a seismic event.  And so, section four (4), the final section to be covered with the metal corrugated decking, covering the last section of the concrete foundation floor, has the honor of being the feature photo for this week. It can now be said, without reservation, the building rises, albeit in different stages, from the pit. Soon, the two floors that are forever relegated to the pit will simply be letters the elevator buttons: “A” and “B.”

With the Liebherr 1750 crawler crane, “Cheese,” being dispatched to Rams Stadium, the week of May 6, Bragg Crane & Rigging Company, on Friday, May 11, erected a Manitowoc MLC300 crawler crane with 325-feet of boom and 200-tons of counter weights on the south side of the building site. Although the new “Cheese” has less lifting capacity, the boom is approximately 75-feet taller than the previous cranes.

This week, the rod buster’s are working double time to lay the rebar in the northwest section of level where the concrete flooring is slated to be poured on Thursday. Subcontractors, ie: electricians, plumbers, and HVAC are double checking to make sure all of the inserts have been installed and/or marked for installation before the concrete is poured.

At 3:00 AM, Thursday morning the concrete crew begin pouring the first quadrant (northwest corner) of the ground floor. By early afternoon the last of the cleanup was winding down and the surface was being checked for high spots.

Looking  back on the week, I would say there were three (3) wow moments: 1) Observing the southeast quadrant being filled in with decking, columns, and beams rising two stories above the “A” level decking. 2) Pouring concrete on the northwest quadrant of the ground floor and then being able to walk on the concrete the following day. 3) The offloading and the setting of the largest and heaviest column weighing in at 100,393-pounds.

By Friday, some of the iron workers were making ready the fifth floor for a Sunday push to install a raft of sixth floor beams, which will form, when completed on all four quadrants, the top of the podium from which the towers will rise.

The rest of the week will be made up of hanging setting columns, hanging steel, welding, and shaking out the metal decking.

Actually, there was a skeleton crew on site Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 13, 2018 and this photos

The Manitowoc MLC300 crawler crane, “Cheese,” stands tall on its first real day on the job.

“CHEESE” OF THE “MAC and CHEESE” DUO FAME ARE TOGETHER AGAIN!!! SAME NAME, SAME PURPOSE, DIFFERENT CRANE.

BEGINNING TO SEE (SORT OF) THE OUTLINE OF A STRUCTURE

Until now it has been difficult to visualize how the building is going to look just by gazing at the steel columns. As the structure’s floors are rising out of the concrete pit one can tell the primary support columns (larger and looks like a cross) and the secondary support columns (thinner in size). This phase is exciting in that one can, by looking at the structural columns, visualize where the towers will be located when comparing the steel columns to an artist rendering or a 3-d scale model. In this post, we’ll use a 3-D scale model and compare it to the structure as it stands today (May 18, 2018),

This 3-d scale model will be used from time to time to illustrate where the project is at certain phases during the construction. For comparative purposes, the blue lines with arrows represent where the gigantic support columns are located in the southeast section of the Children’s Hospital. The first of many columns have been set with the primary support columns positioned to rise above the podium. The secondary columns will rise only to the top of the podium. Once the podium is completed, the primary and secondary columns will become more pronounced as the structures rise, For this exercise, we will concentrate only on the sections outlined in blue. Please keep in mind as you visualize the following photo, the iron workers are still working on the podium phase of the project.

By comparing the placement of the primary and secondary columns, one can begin to tell where the blue outline in the above photo fits into the columns in this photo. Although the blue line in the foregoing illustration is located on the top of the structure, just visualize the lines moving down to the podium and down the side of these primary columns. Floors are identified by the numbers on the right side of the photograph. Level “A” is identified on the left side with “B” level under the corrugated metal decking. The primary column by the number 3 is one of the northeast columns that will also rise above the podium. Number 6 is where the roof of the podium will be. Note that these columns are primary columns and are positioned for the adult hospital tower.