More Pits Are Coming to the South Side of the Construction Site For Utility Support Systems — Pit No. 1: for Dometic Water Tanks

Upon arriving on the roof of the Adult Hospital tower, I made my way over to the southeast corner where the glazers were preparing to install a window. To kill a little time while waiting for the crane to hoist the window, I wandered over to the southeast edge and peered down over the Children’s Hospital tower and into the yard below. To my surprise. I saw a stack of steel used for shoring walls. Could it be that the steel was for the rumored pit. I had heard that somewhere in the area a large pit was to be dug for tanks and pipes. I remembered a few days prior and excavator had been working around the southeast corner of the podium.

I learned there were going to be up to four pits dug for various systems Why more pits?

The steel pilings stacked where the building prototype once stood. The PROTOTYPE That Served a Purpose

For a moment after clicking the camera’s shutter, I thought I could visualize the prototype building still standing in the shadow of the hospital towers. Just for fun, squint your eyes and I bet you can see what I imagined.

I learned that this funny looking contraption was the machine that would be sinking the pilings into the soil.

The site which covers most of this image is the section where the pilings will be sunk around the perimeter of the pit, Once the pilings are set, excavation can begin along with the shoring phase.

With the telescopic leader mast verticle, knew the machine would slowly begin its way to where the first piling would be set. I was unaware that the first piling would be set at the verticle stake in the lower center of the frame.

On Monday, May 6, 2019, the Excavation Began

By the end of the workday on Friday, May 3, 2019, all of the pilings were in the ground. On the following Monday, the excavator began digging. One of the workers indicated that it would take about three (3) days to complete the excavation.

When I arrived on site around 9 AM, the excavation was well underway.  They had begun at the northeast corner.

The northeast corner.

The excavator swings the bucket toward the dirt hauler.

A small Deere Front Loader with rubber tracks sits idle at the bottom of the pit, which is approximately two-stories below grade.

The open pit as viewed from the northwest corner. The perimeter of the pit is surrounded by steel plates, which take the place of shotcrete. After the tanks have been installed and the gravel backfill has been compacted around the tanks per the specs, the steel plates will be extracted along with the pilings.

As viewed from the southeast corner of the 17th floor, the pit yawns wide before the compacting of the subgrade floor begins.

Upon arriving at the pit, I was delighted to see the Wacker Neuson remote-controlled roller at work. The rodent-looking machine appeared even smaller down in the pit. According to the specs. the machine is 73 in. Long X 32 in Wide X 50 in High.  It weighs a hefty 3,295 lbs. For those of you who are mechanically inclined, you may want to check out the following website. https://www.wackerneuson.us/en/products/compaction/rollers/trench-rollers/model/rtxsc3/type/TechnicalData/

Those of us who were standing on grade looking down in the pit, we were able to feel the ground vibrate due to the compaction energy produced, as the website states, by the “below the axle exciter below each drum [which] allow[s] for the efficient transfer of compaction energy to the soil. for superior compaction results. ” The following video will be of interest. In the above photo, David had just climbed down the ladder to do some soil testing before the team called it a day. His partner, Antonio was up on grade operating the remote control.

The next day, David was down in the pit using Multiquip-Mikasa Rammer-Soil Compactor. Upon a closer look at the image, you can see the section he has systematically worked.

The Video

This video shows the Wacker Neuson Remote-Controlled Roller in action down in a pit,