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.