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Our Construction Site
July 2006
Over the last few months we have all seen some very drastic changes taking place where our church building once stood. I am sure there is a lot of confusion right now in many of your minds as to what exactly is going on. I will try to explain what you are seeing right now – or in this case not seeing.
Construction of a new building is a very complicated process. We just went through a couple of months acquiring all the permits, certificates and inspections necessary to begin. While that process was underway you saw the beginning of the dismantling of the old building. It was slow to start because only interior work could be done until the permits were in place.
Next was the moving of all the utilities to the new temporary locations – such as the electricity now comes into the new area that was built where the nursery was located before. Also we needed to have a new way to enter the building while all the construction is going on in the old courtyard. We all must be a little inconvenienced during this but we are working hard to minimize this disruption. We also must all take extra care in assuring that everyone stays safe during this period.
Finally a couple of weeks ago the contractor was able to actually begin with the new construction. The first items of the new building are the pilings. These are very deep steel reinforced concrete columns that have been drilled into the open area behind the walls. There are more than 75 of these and they form the absolute base for the new building. Several have to be tested with very heavy weight placed on them to make sure that they can support the entire building. Very sensitive gauges are used to measure how strong they really are. So far those tests have been very encouraging but this all takes time. After placement of the concrete and steel into the holes it takes about two weeks or more before actual excavation can begin. Concrete needs to cure before it reaches its overall strength in about 30 days. During this time the contractor is readying his workers and equipment for the real noticeable construction to begin. Some of the pictures may help to explain a little what is going on right now behind the fenced in area.
As you can see there really is a lot that has to take place for the construction of the new church. The Construction Committee and the Architect are spending many hours each week to see to it that our new church facility will be the absolute best we can build.
It all may look like a real giant mess for now but it is going to be something great to honor God here in Abu Dhabi.
On behalf of the Construction Committee I would like to thank everyone for their patience during these trying times. I will try to publish additional updates to keep everyone with a firm understanding of our progress in this huge endeavor.