The Week of November 19, 2018 — Yard Work, The Elevator Tower, and an Instructive Field Trip to the 14th Floor

Because of the Thanksgiving Holiday, this will be a short work week. The ironworkers will begin the week by building out and up the Elevator Tower (the Core) that connects the Adult Hospital and Children’s Hospital towers. Interior buildout will continue, and rain preparation will be a top priority as rain is predicted for Wednesday and Thursday, but in Southern California, we have grown accustomed to failed predictions. Once the Core has been squared off, the ironworkers will begin setting the final columns on the east wing of the Adult Hospital tower.

First things first: To begin the work week, supplies and equipment had to be sorted out in the yard and sent up, via the crane, to the 14th and 15th floors. The image to the left shows shows the frame on the east (right) side of the Elevator Tower mostly void of steel above the 14th floor. By the end of the work day, columns had been set around the perimeter of the east section of the core, and the beams has been hung for level 15.

The Yard

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One of the first things the ironworkers had to do to clean up the yard was hoist several bundles of corrugated metal decking to the 16th floor of the west wing. The image above is a composite of a number of lifts made to accomplish this task.

The east yard fronts Anderson Street and at the moment this webcam image was snapped there was a hub of activity. In view of the lens was a semi truck was in the yard to offload a large beam, a laborer was spraying the yard with water to reduce dust, and a waste pumping service truck was servicing the portable toilets. On the northeast side, the ironworkers were shaking out the iron.

The Northeast Yard: The iron shakeout begins.

While the ironworkers were shaking out the iron, the crane operator lowered three portable toilets off of the 14th floor to the east yard to be serviced. After servicing the portable toilets will be whisked back up to the 14th level.

Northeast Yard: The shake out of the iron iron continues as the ironworkers layout the beams in the order of installation.

The Elevator Tower

The Arch of the Steel: After the steel columns were erected on the Elevator Tower, the beams were hoisted in what is called in the industry as a multi-lift (Christmas Tree) rigging procedure.

By 8:57 AM, the make ready tasks were completed and the southeast corner column had been set as demonstrated by the yellow arrow in the enlarged image to the right

An Instructive Field Trip to the 14th Floor —

An Essay

Exordium  

I have been to the 14th floor of the east wing on numerous occasions, but today (November 20, 2018) was a field trip, I knew I had to make if the right circumstances prevailed. Around 6:30 AM, I turned on my home office computer, and clicked on the Loma Linda University webcam website. For several minutes, I scanned the eight camera angles looking for any hint as to what might be coming down the pike. At 6:32 AM, I snapped the first webcam screen shot, using camera four, which provides a detailed view of the east elevation of the steel frame sans the iconic Medical Center towers, which had for a half century dominated the east entrance. I snapped the first of three images, which would serve as the markers to measure the construction progression for the day. Somehow, I had the feeling that this would be the day the ironworkers would begin their full frontal assault to the east setting at least two rows of columns all the way to the east end of the building. I was also wanting to capture the installation of the  first few columns because they would be a good indicator as to the top out elevation of the east wing.

I. Webcam Images Taken From My Home Office Computer

The first of the morning’s baseline images: The 6:32 AM image of the east elevation fronting Anderson Street.

My thinking and guesstimation has been that the west wing of the Adult Hospital tower is slated to top out at the 16th story (excluding the helipad), the core or the Elevator Tower: 18 stories, and the east wing 17 stories.  I snapped the second webcam image at 6:33 AM using webcam 6, which faces the south elevation of the structure. Of the three images, this straight on view would provide the clearest detail as the columns march toward the east.

The second baseline image snapped at 6:33 AM image of the south elevation. When set, the columns will stand erect like soldiers against the azure sky.

The last of the images troika was shot from webcam number 5, which is located on the hill where in “1909, a group of ten students enrolled at Loma Linda  in the freshman year of a course which they hoped would lead to their being graduated as physicians”¹ from this “once surviving, developing, and eventually prospering”² small sectarian college.

The third and last baseline photo which was taken of the north elevation at 6:35 AM.

I didn’t have to wait long, so I thought, to find out if this would be the day. At 6:36 AM, just a minute after I snapped the previous photo, a column (as it is hung vertically as apposed horizontally) rose above the northeast corner. Could it be? Could it be the first of the last columns that would to be set along the east wing?

At 6:37, the first column of the day (so I thought) rose above the northeast corner of the structure.

I wasn’t sure, it that the member was narrow, and some of the elevator shaft support columns are narrow. If it was an east wing column it would have to be a center row column in that the outside columns are enormous. I would have to wait a moment for the the arch of the crane’s boom. But, so focused was I on the hoped for east wing columns and capturing screen shots to document the event, I failed to notice that the momentous image had been captured in the second (6:33 AM) baseline photograph. And so, it wasn’t until I began reviewing the series of screen captures of what I thought was the first east wing column, that I came to the realization that the first had been captured at the moment it was being set.

The enlarged image of the first east wing column set at 6:33 AM.

There it stood as clear as day, the first east wing column. In the enlarged image, the cable was still attached to the cable (refer to the yellow arrow). This was going to be a great day! I could tell, upon closer inspection of the column’s position that the ironworkers had indeed begun with the center row.

The arch of the second column.

And so, what was to be the arch of the first column of the east wing turned out to be the arch of the second column.

A lonely crow performs a flyby giving the center row columns aerial inspection.

By 7:04 AM four columns had been set, enough to begin squaring off four bays beginning with the 15th floor. By this time, I was quite certain that the ironworkers would connect with the elevator tower at its northeast corner. I made the decision to stay at my computer screen rather than rushing down to the site.

My decision to stay at my desk staring at the computer screen turned out to be the correct choice for within a minute (7:05 AM), I spotted a large exterior structural column (see arrow) rising at the northeast side of the structure.

By 7:10 AM, the first exterior structural column had been bolted into place.

A closeup of the exterior structural column.

The Four Amigos

In a little over an hour four exterior columns had been set defining the approximate height of the Adult Hospital’s east wing.

With the hanging of the beams for the 15th floor well underway, I packed up my camera gear and headed for the job site. My first stop would be the parking structure P4, where I would photograph the east wing. My next stop would be the 14th floor. Hopefully, I would be able to spend some time there photographing the ironworkers and welders.

II. Images From Parking Structure P4

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As shown in this closeup image, the heavy exterior  15th floor beams are bolted to the exterior of three of the structural columns.

While looking at the mammoth steel structure during the work week, it is difficult, even for me, to determine what the laborers are doing on site. In the larger image above there are three inset photographs that depict some of the construction activities that could immediately identify. In the upper left two ironworkers lean against a safety cable on a 15th floor exterior girder as they wait for the crane to deliver some infill beams. The upper right image shows a welder standing on a 14th floor floater platform as he welds a steel plate to the column. At the lower left a concrete finisher smooths out a section of the concrete floor that had been poured on the 9th floor of the Children’s Hospital tower.

The steel frames of the two hospital towers as photographed from parking structure P4.

A sixth floor perspective of the south elevation of the two hospital towers as viewed from the back of parking structure P4. With this image in the memory stick of my trusty Canon 6D, I packed the gear and headed for the site.

III. Heading for the Yard 

Once I parked the truck, I stood in the center of Starr Street at the corner of Starr and Anderson Streets to snap this image of the three towers: the Children’s Hospital tower (left), the Elevator tower (center), and the Adult Hospital tower right.

By the time I got to the yard, the ironworkers were shaking out iron, and by the size and type, I could tell that more columns were soon to be hoisted to the top. Tommy, one of the crane crane operators confirmed my suspicions, when he said that the “connectors” Kenny and Jason would soon head to the top (the 14th floor).

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Crane operator, Don, at the controls as the ironworkers shake out the iron.

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IV. The 14th Floor

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V. The East Central Column

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Phone operator Corey (center) stands between ironworkers Kenny (left) and Jason (right). They had just completed setting the column on the southeast corner of the Adult  Hospital tower. The phone operator is a crane operator as well as an ironworker and communicates via phone with the crane operator on the ground.

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VI. Setting the Southeast Column

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After the east central column had been set, Kenny made is way over to the southeast base to remove the warning light before the column arrived.

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Just prior to going up to the 14th floor with the ironworkers, Jason, one of the connectors told me that day (11.20.18) was his last day on the Loma Linda project as he was moving to another job out of the area. So long Jason: I’ve enjoyed watching you and your fellow ironworkers hang the steel. Godspeed, and be safe as you find other iron to walk and new heights to conquer.

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With the southeast column bolted to its base, the ironworkers head for a well deserved lunch break.

As I made my way to the aerial lift, I turned around and spotted Eddie, the plumb-up guy,(http://revised.docuvision2020.com/index.php/2018/02/21/edward-an-ironworker-and-a-plumb-up-foreman/ ) who I haven’t seen in days as he has been camped out on the upper floors keeping the building plumb.

VI. Don’t Fall in the Holes!

Richard, the ironworker foreman on the 14th floor told me: “Don’t walk around on the metal decking, stay put, and don’t fall in any holes.”

Plywood over the 14th floor stairwell.  There was a wide enough crack to take a photo of Prospect Avenue.

I snapped this image as I waited for the aerial lift. As I stood waiting, the welder commented that because of the wait around lunch time, “the guys begin to sing the man lift blues.”

VII. The Video

This short three-plus minute video provides the view with a sampling of the sights and sounds on the 14th floor as the ironworkers set two three-story columns: the east central and southeast columns. These columns, which weigh several tons must be handled with great care as they are slowly lowered and aligned into place.

On November 20, 2018, I was unable to take video as we rode the aerial lift from the 14th floor to the ground floor as there were too many laborers in the elevator. On Monday, November 26, 2018, I was able to take the lift up to the 14th floor and going down I was able to video the experience, which took 59 seconds non stop.

VIII. Epilogue