Daily Log 9/22/2011 Performing Arts

Today we went and visited the Performing Arts Center on campus, this new building will be the signature building for the Performing arts here at Virginia Tech. This building has run into some issues regarding the foundation system and a stream, it was very interesting to see what the contractors were doing in order to maintain their schedule and still meet building codes and inspections. This building shows us that with tightly scheduled projects it is possible to have problems and fix them without cutting corners. Attached is the daily log report, some photos of the caisson drill, a link to a video of the men blasting in the caisson hole, and a drawing of the caisson rig/operation.

9-22-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

The video offers an awesome insight into how the contractors deal test for stability in their caissons. When the contractor thinks they have hit a piece of bed rock solid enough for the concrete to attach to then they will send a man down into the hole using the triangular support and a lanyard, he will then drill a hole into the rock using a drill, then he will fill that hole with blasting material, after this they will pull him back out and go through some safety procedures and then blow it up. This allows the contractor to see if the rock is hard enough for the concrete. See the video description on my youtube channel for more information.

This site offered us a good insight into some major issues that buildings and contractors run into here on campus, and that is the poor foundation. This site had a caisson schedule that was supposed to be finished in one month and when we visited the site it was in its six month of caisson construction. The main issue was that the contractor did not expect to run into a creek underneath the building, but that is exactly what they did. The way that they were handling this was by increasing the number of caissons and changing the depth of some of them. Because the job was scheduled properly though the contractor can have these issues and doesn't have to worry about going over their schedule yet.

Daily Log 9/14/2011 ASA

This is another visit of the ASA Project on campus. This time the building was under full work and there were dozens of workers on site. I focused on the exterior of the building this time because it was all I could see from beyond the fence. Attached is the daily log, some photos of the site, and a sketch of the building.

9-14-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This site is always an interesting one to view because there is so much going on at any given time. I do have a few suggestions as to how to improve efficiency on the site. First off I noticed that the masons working in the boom lifts had to travel up and down constantly from the top of the building to the bottom in order to get mortar and freshly cut stones to work on the building facade; they could possibly use one of their all terrain lifts to boom materials up/down to the men where they need it most. I also noticed that this job is tightly scheduled but it seems that the trades might be tripping over one another inside the building right now; maybe it would be possible to send the trades in floor by floor. Finally the site could avoid the use of lanyards, tie offs and retractables in a cage style safety net was installed like the ones we saw from Australia.

Daily Log 9/5/2011 ASA

This Daily Log report is from the ASA Site again, I happened to walk by the site on a rainy and possibly thundering afternoon; so there was no one on site. This kind of surprised me because in my experience we would work through any situations of rain as long as there was no lightning involved; as I said earlier I didn't happen to see or hear any lightning on that afternoon. The site was nearly entirely weathered in at this point as well so I was surprised to not see anyone working inside the building where they would have been safe from the dangers of lightning. This must just be Skanska's safety protocols compared to the company that I worked for. Attached is a limited daily log of what i happened to see and the report of the day.

9-5-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

I didn't have to deal with another rained out site for the semester; I managed to plan my site visits around good weather.

Daily Log 8/26/2011 ASA

This is the first of a series of daily logs from the construction sites around campus. This one was taken from the ASA Building when I did a site walk through with Jason Kovac, a superintendent for Skanska.

8-26-11 Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This was a great first site walk through for the semester because it allowed me an inside look into one of the larger construction sites on campus. We walked around both the inside of the site and the outside and looked at the work that all the different trades were completing. This varied from Masonry, HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Safety and Sprinklers, Wall Framing both load bearing and non, and Window installation and caulking.

Reddick Contracting, LLC Daily Log Report

This semester we were asked to perform daily log forms on the various construction sites on the Virginia Tech campus and in the surrounding community. In this first post I have attached the template that I created for each different project that I have gone and observed. I have also attached the example daily logs from a number of different companies that I used to create my own template. These were given to me willingly by each different company as long as I did not copy them exactly and as long as I did not use them in any legal sense. These daily log's will continue the rest of the semester each week, varying on the information covered, the sites visited, and the suggestions to be made for each site.

This is an example of my template that I've created for the daily logs.
Daily Log Report (Reddick Construction)

This is an example that I looked at to create my Daily Log Form, it is from the company I work for at home.
Copy of Blank Con Tech Daily Log Form (3)

This is a second company from home that I have worked with, their log report is a little more comprehensive.
Blank ACTUS Daily Log Form

This is an example from a company working here on campus, they sent me two different daily logs. The first of the two is very comprehensive and easy to decipher, the second is not a very good log and a lot of information can be lost between the author and the reader.
Daily Report for M S 01 23 2009

MinimumDR

You can see from these different Daily Log forms that my report took a little bit of information from all of them. It may not be as comprehensive as the third report but that is just because I am looking from the outside of the construction site as a civilian, and not an employee. Each report will also include a short summary of things that could be changed in my mind on each different site.