Closing Discussion

This semester long project has been a good one for a number of reasons, most importantly it increased our learning of the subject matter in class. The site walk throughs were meant to back up what we were talking about in class and they did so very well, as long as you visited the correct sites. There are many construction projects going on on campus at any given time and each one represents a unique part of the trade. The Signature Engineering building offered us a look into excavation, cut and fill, and structural concrete with deep foundation systems and caissons. The Performing Arts Center allowed us an insight into deep foundation systems, concrete walls and floors, and most importantly how the contractor dealt with issues that arose on site. The ASA building offered an insight into many different things depending on when you observed it this semester; they were doing structural and the masonry facade early in the year; they were working on installing glazing and doors; they were installing interior walls and ceilings; they were installing and finishing drywall; the casework and other finishes were being installed at the end of the semester; and the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fire safety, and data was being installed during the end of the semester. The structures design/building project on Tom's Creek represented a look into wood framing and stick building on site, we also got a chance to look at headers, jack studs, king studs, and cripple studs like we had talked about in class. There are many other construction projects going on on campus that cover these same topics that I had the chance to watch come together. I am a firm believer in experience being the best learning tool and I think this opportunity to observe sites and even walk around some of them gave us all a great opportunity to increase our knowledge of the trade.

Another of the benefits of this project was that if we ran into questions or issues when we were were doing these walk throughs we had the opportunity to go to class and ask Dr. McCoy about his perspective on our questions. I don't think i have any outstanding questions from this semester as we did a very good job covering each of the different topics in class through the lectures.

I will continue to watch these sites come together throughout next semester and am interested to see how they come about and what issues they may run into. Maybe I'll even keep this blog up to date instead of letting it get lost into the endless void of the internet. I would like to think that what I've learned this semester will allow me to one day building something like the LumenHaus in all its technological and architectural wonder.

Thanks for a wonderful semester to all those that made it so good.

Daily Log 12/7/2011 ASA Project

Tonight I made one final trip to the ASA building to get an insiders look at how the project had been coming along. We got a full tour from the basement all the way to the penthouse and it offered a very good insight into how the building is coming. There are some really neat features in this building that I managed to capture with my camera and otherwise heard about from the two foremen and the site intern from Skanska that were doing the site walk through with us. Attached is the daily log report and some photos from inside the building and a couple from the exterior the day before.

12-7-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction) ASA Building

The day before I walked around the site and saw the masons finishing up the Hokie stone facade on the lower exterior of the building, you can not really see the work they are doing because of the weather protection they have set up. This weather protection allows the masons to stay out of the elements and to use heaters inside of this poly in order to keep the mortar the right temperature for an ideal setting bed. This is pretty typical of what I've seen at construction sites at home, where we get more snow and colder temperatures.

This photo looks down the main entrance side of the building, as you can see the wall is almost entirely made of glass which gives a really nice effect both walking up to the building and when your inside eating. Last night I got a chance to walk through this area and it really is going to be an amazing building.

This photo from the back of the building shows the work still being completed on the exterior of the building. You can see that there are some men caulking around the windows on the top floor and masons installing Hokie stone. From these photos you can see that the exterior of the building is nearly complete and should be done by early spring depending on weather.

We entered the building through the corp entrance and the first thing you see when you come in this doorway is the "Bistro" which will be a Chicago style steak house. This photo shows some of the metal studs that are being used in the construction of interior walls. Metal studs were used throughout the entire building, no wood was used in construction.

From this photo you can see the ceiling which will be exposed like that of Bishop Favrao. There will be some architectural ceiling pieces that are complicated and unique looking but otherwise the ceiling will be completely exposed and will just be painted on the lower two floors, the upper third floor will have a suspended acoustical ceiling.

The future main stairway is going to be a really unique item that sets this building apart from others on campus for a number of reasons. All they have in place right now is the structural elements but soon enough they will have the precast concrete steps with glass and stainless steel railings. It is will be the main way to get form the first floor to the second floor eateries and will be quite a site when it is complete.

One of the unique things used by Skanska is their technology on site, this television/computer hub is used by all subcontractors in order to view the most up to date drawings. Also on these computers is a virtual building that is available through Revit software, so there is an up to date BIM drawing of the entire building that is accessible to all the subcontractors on site. This allows each trade a precise drawing of where their materials need to be in order for the other trades to get through with their own materials.

This, poorly lit, photo is the entrance to Brugers Bagels. These circles represent the theme for the entire bagelry as the chairs will be decorated with circles and the walls will be adorned with different circles. The Skanska men said it took three men a week just to build, sheet rock, and finish these couple of holes; whatever makes the architect happy I guess!

As you can see here the casework and most of the drywall is already installed in Brugers Bagels. Skanska uses a "moisture resistant" drywall so that they could install it earlier in the season and because it is a higher quality material. They just bite the extra cost because they know it will result in a higher quality finished product for the owner.

Here we can see some of the future casework for "le cafe". From this we can see all the hard work and planning that had to go into the building because of all the stub ins through the floor for electrical, water, gas, waste, and other utilities. I can just imagine the headaches that go into designing something like this with thousands of connections in such a small area; there are nine different food service station within this building that all had to deal with the same issue as this.

Its hard to see in this picture but it represents the "origami grill" where students will be able to sit down and have a Japanese chef cook right in front of them. There will be complicated suspended hoods over each different grill that will each be uniquely constructed. There will also be an entire glass wall with different LED lights on the bottom so you can color the glass different colors and the rear wall will have a "tree" facade that is just a slice out of an old growth tree; this weighs somewhere between 600 and 800 lbs so the wall had to have extra strength built into it. This place is going to be awesome.

Upstairs their are three 75 person classrooms that will be used by a multitude of different courses. The classrooms have a raised floor (that I didn't get a picture of), so that it is easier to run electrical conduits and internet into the room, and a "cold beam" in the ceiling in order to cool the room. The cold beam works by running water over chilled coils and creating a cheap and green air conditioning unit; they are pretty neat and are used in many buildings on campus now.

This final picture is from the pent house and shows just one of three air handlers for the building. There are three handlers because of the total square footage that each one will have to cover. Number one, the largest one, services the first two floors eating space, so the largest portion of the building. Number two services the office space on the second floor. Number three services the classrooms and offices on the third floor. The pent house draws air from the exterior of the building from the louvers that you can see outside, so these are active and not for aesthetic purposes.

This building is really amazing to walk around inside and this site walk through was a great experience, I'm really glad I made the time to visit the site again before this project was completed. There is a lot more going on inside the building that I didn't even talk about because I couldn't remember all we covered. This building has a lot of green properties and will be certified LEED Silver when it is completed, this is mandated that all state and federally funded projects must reach this certification. I am very glad that I will be able to use this building next fall and am looking forward to trying all the different foods offered; as for the construction though it offers us as students a unique look into a very technological and aesthetic building that must be completed on a tight schedule. Skanska appears to be doing fine right now thought from what we talked about on the tour.

The Issue with Rain

It was interesting walking around campus today, past the five or six construction sites, and seeing no men working on any of them. Now I had assumed that the workers would be out in the field today working because there was no lightning or thunder but that was not the case. The thing that makes me wonder about this is that when I worked as a labor at home during the summer time we would work through any weather other than lightning and if that was the case we would rarely even leave work. On one occasion we showed up to work around 7:00 am (the typical starting time) to find our site completely soaked from the past 24 hours rain and a complete mess; the bad thing though was that they had called for lightning until about 8:00 am. So we waited in the job trailer until about 8:00 am and started working just like any other day although it was a complete downpour. The reason we were able to work was because the lighting had cleared but the storm had not; so we got wet, really wet, but we didn't let that stop our work. It amazes me that these projects on campus which all have such tight schedules shut down for the day because of a little rain. It would be interesting to see what the different big companies in the country have for work policies in different weather situations. Maybe it is just the superintendent or the project managers call, but if I was the one in charge I would definitely have had the men out there today. The good thing about the rain is that you only get wet once. Attached are a couple of pictures from the signature engineering building and as you can see there are no men on site.

As you can see the site is pretty wet but it should not be a cause to stop work.

Daily Log 10/18/2011 Signature Engineering

Today I walked over to the Signature Engineering project near the parking garage and got a closer look from the ground, I then ran up to the top of the parking deck to grab a photo or two of the site. From here I could see that the site was just starting to get ready for some serious work. The asphalt had been completely cleared from the site, the equipment seemed to be ready to go and was just waiting on the go ahead, and the men seemed antsy to get the real work started. It appears that they are about to start drilling caissons on site being that the drill rig is on site and seems ready to go along with all of its different drill bits and coring bits. Attached to this is a daily log for the site visit today.

10-18-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction) Signature Engineering

As you can see here the site is beginning to set up and prepare for the caisson construction and to begin the heavier work load. Soon the site should be under more man power and more things should be happening on a daily basis. When I was done walking around the base of the site i ran up and took a quick photo from the parking garage (where this is from).

I wonder if this site will run into the same problems that they did on the Performing Arts Center site, that is the high amount of water for the foundation caissons. It will only be a matter of time until this is found out. If they do run into the same issue here I wonder if they will handle it the same way? Is there a possibility of them going to Holder and asking how they handled the issue or is that kind of cooperation unheard of between competing contractors? I know that if I was working I might first be neglectful to tell my competitor how I had solved an issue but it could save their project and help out the university as a whole in the long run. If all construction companies upheld a high moral standard them I'm sure the people of the world would not view us with such bad pretenses some times, contractors are rarely out to take you for all the money you have. This just got a little more philosophical than I had intended it to but it is a valid question worth thinking about. I will have to keep heading to this site throughout the semester and see the progress that it has made, if they are done with the caissons in a relatively quick time then it is easy to tell that they didn't run into the same issues as the Performing Arts Center. As for the construction that is going on directly next to the parking garage and more near the sidewalk, it does pertain to the Signature Engineering building. I asked the men what they were doing and they said that they were running the existing electrical and water mains to the new building; so the Signature Engineering building will be tied into Virginia Tech's main campus grid.

Daily Log 12/5/2011 Turner Street

I went back and visited the Turner Street Parking garage site again to see if there was any progress made from the last time I had visited; there wasn't much of a difference from the last time. The main difference was that you could see that Holder was stepping up its excavation and grading process, there were more men and more pieces of equipment on site today then their were prior. The price of this job must have increased a lot due to the man power because of the increase of men and equipment on site. I wonder how much thought and time goes into allotting men and equipment for a project; do you put all your men and equipment on site for say a week or do you slowly bring men and equipment on over a three to four week period? This is something that I guess is up to the contractor, the scheduling, and the immediate budget for the job. Attached is the daily log form from today and a photo of some of the equipment and work being done.

12-5-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction) Turner Street

This photo is taken from the McDonald's side of the site, allowing a different view of the site. You can see here just a glimpse of all the work going on currently. What you cannot see in the photo is the the caisson company or the utility company finishing up.


This site is always an interesting one to visit because so much is going on at any given time. The site allows you to see mainly at this time the movement and grading of the earth. The finished grade of building slab appears to have dropped multiple feet from the existing roadway on Turner street; when the building is completed I am assuming there will be one entrance (for cars) near the "Chu-Chos" building and that the rest of the building will be storefronts much like that of Kent Square Parking garage. It will be interesting to see what the face of the building looks like when it is completed.

Daily Log 12/2/2011 Stanger Street

Friday morning I went and visited the small utility and sidewalk site on Stanger street, directly across from Mcbryde. This site has been going on for a while and has progressively moved down Stanger street towards campus starting all the way down by the parking lot across from Surge. I have to assume they are installing a new utility or water line of sorts because you could see through the fence for a while and see that they had men deep in a hole working on something underground. This site has caused car and pedestrian traffic to be congested for some time now and it is nice to finally have the sidewalks open for pedestrian use. Attached is a limited daily log report, very few men on site and even fewer safety procedures, and a couple of photos of the site.

12-2-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction) Stanger Street

This first photo shows a picture down the new sidewalk that the concrete was poured for the day before. You can see the labor removing the concrete forms from the sidewalk. The step that follows is to pour the concrete for the last section of the sidewalk, this was done that evening and the sidewalk was finished and open for use on Monday.

Here you can see the new sidewalk from a higher and a little different angle, again the labor is still stripping the forms using a leverage bar that allows him to easily pull the stakes out of the ground. I have never seen a bar like this but it is a great idea, when I would have to pull stakes in the field we would just hit them with our hammers and attempt to pull them at the same time; using this tool makes the process much easier from what I've seen today. Around the corner, where the front end loader is pointed, an existing sidewalk is being removed by a labor and an operator from the utility company; they must be finishing up what little bit of work they had left because as of Monday they were gone.

This site doesn't seem like it could entail that much work but I'm sure there was a lot going on under ground that could not be seen by the simple passerby of the site. It took them a long time (nearly the entire semester) to finish the stretch of sidewalk that runs from Major Williams to Surge, so there had to be some important tasks being accomplished down those holes. Now that this sidewalk is again open for pedestrian traffic I'm sure that the congestion on both the roadway and the sidewalk will clear up. As a frequent walker of this sidewalk I am glad to see it open again. The only recommendations I have for this site would be to increase the safety of the workers on site by requiring PPE to be worn by everyone. Also I realize there was not a lot of room to complete this work and that's why the work zone had to spill over into the sidewalk and even the road on some days, this was a required part of working in such a confined space.

Daily Log 12/1/2011 West AJ

For the third visit today I went over to the West AJ Renovation project. This project is an extensive complete building renovation that has been going on for over two years now, obviously there is a lot going on. I didnt have the opportunity to walk inside the building but I did get some photos and take some notes from the exterior of the building. Attached is a daily log form and also some photos.

12-1-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction) West AJ

This photo shows the exterior of West AJ looking into the corner of the building where they are rebuilding the masonry of the exterior. You can see the extensive scaffold system that has been installed surrounding the exterior of the building, this is where the masonry company is working from. This allows them an ample work area for the men to work safely and quickly.

From this photo you can see another angle of the building and the scaffolding. There isn't a lot that you can see from the outside of the building so this is why the two photos seem to look so alike. Again you can see the extensive scaffold system that has been installed around the exterior. In front of the building you can see the staging area that is being used to park vehicles, where the office trailer is, and where materials are beings stored.

This site offers a unique experience in its scaffolding system, I feel like these are getting more rare today instead of seeing men working off lifts or pneumatic scaffolds. I really regret not going to the interior site visit of this building, it would have been very beneficial to see what they were doing inside the building; being that I missed it though this is the best i could do. The only recommendations I have for this site is to use more pneumatic scaffolds instead of the extensive scaffolding; I would expect the use of man lifts and pneumatic scaffolds would cost less than this and would be easier to maintain. It would be interesting to see the estimated price difference between the scaffold used and my idea.

Daily Log 12/1/2011 Toms Creek

While on top of the parking garage I happened to look down Toms Creek and saw a large stick framed building, so I headed there and found a great example of what we were talking about in class most recently. The Tom's Creek Structural Design Build project is a great example of wood framing and structural beams. There was no one on site the day I visited but I did walk around the inside of the building and got a few photos of different things including the safety policies of the company working on the site. Attached is a limited daily log report and some photos from the inside and outside of the building.

12-1-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction) Toms Creek

This photo gives us a shot from the exterior of the building, it allows us to see the progress that has been made up to this point which includes all the exterior walls being stood and the roof rafters installed nearly half way. You can also see that they are using a system in which the wall sheathing includes the house wrap, this saves you a step later in the process and gives you a better seal in order to meet environmental standards today.

In this photo we can see a typical window unit, though a large window, in the building. You can see that the window has a jack stud, a king stud, a header, a rough sill, cripple studs, and it is framed into a typical stud wall. This is what we were talking about in class recently and it is good to see it in the real world.

This third photo shows the interior of the building looking specifically at the rafters of the building. You can see these are all constructed of wood and metal clips to hold the pieces of lumber together, even the load bearing units are constructed of lumber.

This final photo shows the load bearing lvl in the building connecting the roof rafters to the structural column. This column then transfers the load down to the concrete foundation, which is typical in all buildings. This shows that wood can be used the same as steel and is much cheaper as long as the building isn't too large.

This was a good site visit though it would have been much more beneficial if the contractor was actually on site, then i could have asked more questions about the building and the schedule for the future. I plan on making a trip back at some point, whether that is during this semester or next. I do not have any recommendations for this building. I really like this building because I am a big fan of wood framed buildings because that is my favorite type of building to actually construct (I've had a background in wood and metal). I wish we would see more of this type of building but I know we are moving away from it as a country, we are moving more towards the rest of the worlds construction types which is metal framing.

Daily Log 12/1/2011 Signature Engineering

Today I ventured to the top of the parking garage again in order to take a look down on the Signature Engineering Building again and see the progress that had been made from the last time I looked at it. First off the site had made some drastic changes from the first visit; for one thing the caissons appeared to be completed and the storm sewer line being installed was nearly finished. Today the truck crane that was on site for a week was actually being packed up and removed from site which was a neat site to watch; the crane boom gets retracted all the way possible, then the boom swings down over the cab of the truck, then outriggers get pulled in through hydraulics and the labors from the crane company, finally the crane backed its way off the site once all the equipment in the way was moved clearly out of the path of the crane. Attached is a daily log, some photos, and a quick sketch of the site.

12-1-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This first photo is just an aerial shot of the entire site; from it you can see the different work areas, staging areas, and office areas. They are better described in the sketch attached.

Here is a close up of the caisson drilling rig and all the different bits that are used for this site alone. You can see this requires a large amount of area in order to not impede your work area so it is essential to properly lay out a construction site in order to keep your work areas clear when they need to be schedule wise.

This final photo shows some of the current work area, some of the storage with the conex units, and a couple of the office trailers. It is easy to see this is tight sight and there is very little room to place things, this again shows the importance of proper site planning.

This sketch shows the existing site plan that I quickly drew up while looking at the site. It just breaks down the site and allows the reader to see what each different section of the site is used for. As you can see there is no free area on the site, the entire site is being used for something; this is only possible with proper site planning.

This site has done a good job since the last time I viewed it in cleaning up its unneeded material from the demolition of the parking lot. Now the site is free to work on and around in an easier manner, though it is still tight. I do not have any recommendations for efficiency this time, it appears they have put a lot of thought into how they were going to use this site. I am excited to see this building reach 100% because it will be one of the most important buildings on campus, especially to engineering majors. I will continue to look at this site next semester and until it is completed.

Daily Log 11/29/2011 RL Price

Today I went and visited the site on Prices Fork for the first time, with the R.L Price sign in front of the building. It is a squat little building that was constructed of structural steel, concrete floors, metal framing, and a brick facade on the exterior. The building is located on one of the main roads in Blacksburg and I had expected better safety protocols from the workers and contractor. When I visited the site there was not a single man wearing any sort of PPE; this includes glasses, gloves, hardhat or high visibility clothing. Even though this is no a very large project and probably costs under $500,000 to build it still was amazing to me that no sort of safety measures were being taken. Attached is a daily log form of the workers and subcontractors and some photos of the work being performed along with the building.

11-29-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This photo is of the workers from R.L. Price, as you can see none of them have on any of the typical PPE that we see on all the other construction sites on campus and around town. It must be because they are a smaller company that they feel that they do not need to follow the typical OSHA standards but that is not the case for all construction companies. ConTech for instance mandates the use of typical PPE on all sites whether indoors or outdoors, state rate or privately funded, or main street Blacksburg or back roads northern NY.

As you can see here this picture shows the exterior of the building, you cannot see the structural steel anymore because it has been entirely covered up with the brick facade. The brick facade is in a typical running bond pattern that seems to be the standard in today's brick construction. Also in this picture you can see a miniature excavator loading materials into a dump truck.

I have a couple of suggestions for this site; first off I would highly recommend increasing the safety of the workers and civilians by taking a step back and looking at the project (as I did) from a civilians point of view, this would allow the contractor to see the mistakes they are making currently. I would also recommend using an AutoCAD like program to avoid having to excavate excessive materials off the site and then you wouldnt have to bring in so much gravel for the parking lot. It was a good experience for me to see this site because it represents what should not be done on a construction site in regards to safety, which i think should be every companies highest priority.

Daily Log 11/28/2011 Turner Street

Today I went back to the Turner Street Parking Garage to see how much progress had been made since my last visit before the Thanksgiving holiday. There was quite a bit completed from the last time I was here, there were significant advances made on the site work and grade, the caissons appeared to be completed, the rebar crew was now working on installing the rebar cages for the shallow foundation system, the utility crew was working on installing the water lines and the electrical lines for the sites, and there was also concrete poured on the day of that I visited for the shallow foundation. As you can see this project is moving fairly quickly out of the ground and we should see some structures going up in a short time. There are some photo's attached of the work and the workers and their is a daily log form attached as well.

11-28-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This first photo is of the men covering the freshly poured concrete with tarps and blankets, this allows the concrete to cure quicker and to keep it from any precipitation that might cause the concrete to lose strength. From my experience we only did this in colder situations and if we had to finish the concrete where it would be viewed, not within a foundation; this just represents the differences between the company I worked for and Holder though.

Here you can see the workers preparing the foundation for concrete by installing the rebar cages and making last minute adjustments to them. These are typically tied in a staging area of the site and then moved into place using the crane, this allows the workers to be as efficient as possible. This is the final step before pouring concrete for the foundation system.

This photo shows an exposed manhole in the center of the site, it has been spray painted orange so that operators and other workers on site can see it and therefore avoid it. This is a pretty typical safety precaution from what I've seen both here and in NY.

This last photo is of the utility crew installing the electrical conduit for the new site coming from the existing lines running under Turner Street. Because Holder had to tie into the existing grid the sidewalk and roadway had to be cut partway in order to reach the existing utility lines, this is why traffic was so bad on Turner street at one point this semester.

This site is moving very quickly and should be done well before the Performing Arts Center but that is a good thing. This new parking garage will create a lot of needed parking on this side of town and will help both students getting to class and residents of the apartments in the surrounding areas. This site is very safe, just like the other Holder site, and therefore I couldn't come up with with any suggestions as to improve that; in regards to improving efficiency I don't really have much either, they are moving quickly and safely from what I could see.

Daily Log 11/22/11 Cannon Corners

Over Thanksgiving break I had the opportunity to view one of the sites that my dad's construction company was working on, this was a good opportunity for me to compare ConTech's safety procedures with that of some of the largest companies in the United States. The site that I visited is called "Cannon Corners US Border Patrol Crossing Station", it is a new crossing station from northern NY into southern Ontario. It was also good for me to get out and see some of my old co-workers from my days of a labor in the field. Attached is a daily log report and some photos from around the exterior of the site, because it is a government building I was not allowed photo's inside the building.

11-22-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

In this photo you can see ConTech employee's installing new metal flashing on the exterior of the building at the roof line. They are in an all terrain lift with a man basket attachment, since they are above 6' off the ground they are also tied off inside the basket. This may seem like an excessive amount of safety but it is what OSHA requires and does help to save lives so ConTech follows the guidelines.

Here you can see the exterior of the building and the new site work being done off the main road under the building. This site work is being completed by Luck Brothers along with the paving on site. There has been a good line of communication between ConTech and all subcontractors on site up to this point so far and because of this there have been no work stoppages to date that I know of.

Here is the small outpost constructed on the outskirts of the site. This building is currently having its exterior finishes installed including: metal siding, shingle roof, and exterior lighting. This is being completed by multiple trades and companies including ConTech and S&L Electric.

As you can see here the weather can drastically change in northern NY, when the workers went home on Tuesday night there was no snow, when they came back on Wednesday morning there was 6" of snow on the ground. The first thing that needs to be done is to clear the site in all work areas of snow if at all possible, this increases the safety of the site and reduces the risk of an accidental injury. After that is completed the workers can continue on the same jobs they were doing the the day before.

This final photo is just another reminder of how quickly weather can change and how the contractors must react in order to continue work progress and meet their schedules. ConTech is ahead of schedule on this project and is not going to let something like 6" of snow stop them from keeping that schedule.

It was good for me to get on a ConTech site again, its been since summer since I had seen one, and especially one like Cannon Corners. This is a very high profile job from one of ConTech's main employers, the federal government, so they must upkeep a very high safety standard which is the case on all ConTech projects. There has not been a single job that I have worked on where PPE was required for all workers and all visitors, and ConTech has a very good tract record with OSHA and other construction governing bodies. It would be interesting to see how the companies down here would react to 6" of snow, would they shut the job down for the day, or would they be able to logistically handle the sudden change in weather?

Daily Log 11/15/2011 Turner Street

This week I ventured over to the new Turner Street Parking Garage that's going up on the other side of Surge Hall. This site is another good one to view for concrete, steel, and earthwork at its current stage. In some of the photos you will see that they were drilling the caisson holes and were also installing the rebar into the holes. This was an interesting process to watch because of the cooperation between the different trades to get the job done. You can see the crane operator assisting the caisson contractor and the site contractor removing all of their equipment from the work area. This was a good example of how a construction site is like a team all trying to accomplish the same goal in a short period of time, typical of almost all construction sites. Attached is the daily log for this site and also some photo's from around the site.


11-15-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

As you can see from the daily log Holder upholds the same standards on all their different sites for safety as they do on the main stream "signature" sites like that of the Center for Performing Arts. It is good to see a company as large as Holder uphold such good safety standards and to have such a pristine safety record.

This represents the safety precautions they take around open holes on the site; this is a new water line they are currently installing and since they are at a hold still here they have the hole caution taped off.

Here you can see the "rock hammer" attachment for the excavator which lets the contractor remove large boulders on site by breaking them up with this machine. In my field experience this was extremely useful in that it kept the dynamite off site and allowed work to move forward at the same pace as before.

Here you can see the cooperation between the different trades to get the rebar cage installed into the caisson hole. It is good to see teamwork on large construction sites because without it the project would never get done on time.

Here is the caisson drilling rig on site, it is currently not in use and is therefore being stored in a staging area clear of the work on site. Proper planning allows this machine a place to sit and a couple of days of down time in order to make any repairs and to inspect the caisson holes.

This final photo shows an excavator loading an off road dump truck with soil to be transferred to another section of the site. It would be beneficial for this site to have used a borrow-pit method to estimate how much soil they were going to need on the site because they appear to have moved a lot of it from the turner street side to the main street side.

This site was a good one to check out and the company was good about me walking around the site as long as I was properly equipped with my own PPE. I do not have very many suggestions for this site in regards to improving efficiency at this point, one thing I would have said in the beginning was to check the cut/fill on each side of the site so that you could avoid shipping soil in or out if it was not needed.

Daily Log 11/3/2011 Signature Engineering

After a brief hiatus from the site checks I have returned today to visit the new Signature Engineering Building on campus. This building is located back near the parking garage, which offers us a prime position for viewing the work progress from a birds eye view. This building will be the new face of the engineering program here at VT and is therefore being held to a higher building standard then what might normally be required. We even had the opportunity of Roger McFarland the Project Manager for the project, from Gilbane, come in and speak to us about the building. Attached you will find the daily log report and some photos of the building site.

11-3-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This construction site is a very important one to the College of Engineering because it represents the face of the entire program. It will have to be built to a higher standard than some of the other buildings seen on campus and around town. This will be an interesting building to watch being constructed over its construction lifetime. I could see a couple of improvements to efficiency though on the site; I would remove all the existing debris in the center of the site this includes the asphalt chunks and gravel so that the site is safer to work around; I would suggest moving the staging area for the caisson equipment next to the parking garage to allow more room for the excavation crew; and the last thing I noticed was the lack of back up alarms on some vehicles, this could be a safety hazard to the men working around the equipment. I am looking forward to seeing this building completed in the future.