How is a Retaining Wall Formed?

In this posting you will be able to see the stages of forming the slab . It has risen from the footer pouring shown in this earlier posting:

http://whs2010.blogspot.com/2008/04/concrete-in-ground.html


In this photo each stage by stage of the process can be seen; from the poured in reinforcements in the foreground and on the right side of the image, the veritcals are attached in the center, the cross grid tied in left center, and in the midground the forming walls are being tied in.
These workers are attaching the forming walls to the vertical reinforcing steel bars.
As shown in the earlier post, this is the tied steel on the ground which will be raised and set in place attaching to the verticals.
The forming walls are assembled at the site to specifications insured to provide proper support for the poured concrete.
Every detail is important.

Vertical Forming Begins

Vertical forming is being set in place for the pouring of the retaining walls at the bulkhead for the first floor.
These workers are safely tied in to do the work at the top of this 18 ft retaining wall.
This will be a subterranean wall in the front corner of the ground or first floor of the main building.
A second wall will be hung on the other side and then concrete poured into the formed wall.

This photo is taken from the entrance driveway. The area that is being constructed is indicated in the center of the picture.

Concrete in the Ground!

Thursday was a milestone day on the site. The first concrete was poured!

The location of this photo is the north west corner of the main building. It will be the 1st floor, front corner. It is the bulkhead below the entry level and parking lot. The main parking lot and school entry is on the upper left and level in this photo.
For a sense of scale, these vertical rods are approximately 18 feet above the footer slab. In this photo you are looking north toward the entrance drive.

I was unfamiliar with the term"tying steel". These are "untied" vertical steel reinforcement rods.
The process of tying in the cross grid steel with the vertical is shown in this image. The intersections are precisely marked and tied in at the appropriate points.
This photo shows the difference in the cross tied grid and the untied verticals on the right side.
There is an unbelievable amount of reinforcement steel on site just in this area. It is all bundled and tagged when it arrives. Then it is inventoried, sorted, and laid out for access by the construction manager.

This is an exciting step forward. Now we are not just "moving dirt"! A building is arising from the ground. Though it is difficult to see from the site, we are finally beginning building. Steel beams should begin arriving soon and then we will see rapid construction changes on a daily basis.

Water Ways Part 2

Storm drains are mostly in the ground now. We have a complex system of water detention channels under most all of our parking area and sports complex.

The drain lines are enormous. Easily 4-5 feet in diameter. We have to control the water on our property in such a way that we do not "shed" any more water after development than the original property did when we bought it.
All this is to protect the neighborhood, the rivers, and the environment in general. In addition to being government regulation, it is just good land stewardship to make sure our changes in the earth do not negatively affect those downstream. We use "drain basins" as well as culverts and pipes to contain the water flow. The catch basins handle overflow from the site and insure no silt or wash runs into the New River or the protected wetlands and creek.
This is our lowest drain basin, we have three other locations farther up the site.

This one is on the south west side below the visitors side of the stadium.
This aerial shot taken after one of the huge rains we had recently clearly demonstrates how we hold overflow even in hard rain falls.

Equinox Aerial

Each month I get an new aerial photo. Courtesy of Barhill/Vannoy. This one happened on the spring equinox, March 21. Equinox....equal night, actually equal night and daylight.....

what I really like is seeing the purple tips on all the trees starting to to bud out.

Spring is on the way in these mountains. :-)

This is a view looking almost due East. The school building pad is very evident in this photo. The new construction headquarters has been moved onto site. And the sub surface for the paved parking lot in that area is being laid so truck deliveries will travel on an engineered surface.

The next photo is annotated for your bearings. But, the school is not at all to scale, just a symbol location for your reference.