Our Construction Site               

October 2006

Now you can see it! This last month has been one were progress is evident to everyone. As I have stated in previous issues there is a lot of preliminary work required to start our new building. When you are looking at it in these early stages it appears like everything is moving in slow motion. I tried to point out some of the items that were taking place that were not visible to the naked eye. Now all that is changing. The closest and most evident item is the construction right next to the old main entrance. The new stairwell which is shown circled above was actually the first item to be started with placing of concrete. From the picture at the left you can see the beginning formwork as the stairwell was then underway. Every detail along the way has to be considered. Remember the concrete is a hard, solid surface when it is finished so everything has to be formed out before the concrete is poured in to the formwork. Spaces have to be created for electric switches, outlets, panels and light fixtures as well as the pipe conduit that the electric wiring has to run. Everything has to be put in place before any concrete is placed. The formwork is temporary plywood that is strong enough to hold the liquid concrete where it belongs until it hardens or is cured. When it is cured then the plywood forms are removed leaving the bare concrete floors or walls.

The next picture shows the first real part of the new church building to be revealed to the world. This will be the side door that will take you to the first and later second floors. This is stairway is right next to the new main entrance to the new church. If you look into the doorway opening you can see the stairway to the first floor. This will eventually be a secondary entrance to the church building which will basically bypass the ground floor although it will be connected.

This stairway will be totally constructed all the way from the ground floor level to the second floor and will be put in to operation first so that work on the main entrance can continue and removal of the present inside stairway can be removed. When this part is finished it should be a little less crowded in the present temporary entrance area. We will still have tight entrance walk but that cannot be avoided. Also very soon the contractor will be constructing a new door directly into the present main sanctuary for use as an emergency exit. This door will exit out near the temporary caravans now along the side.

I would like to tell you what has been going on down in the main construction area. The excavation was completed some time ago and the dewatering operation began and continues for several months yet. The site had to be totally dry before any construction began. The concrete piles were already done by then and the formwork for the basement had to be built. The picture at the left looks like floor but in this case it is not. Our contractor is placing a high quality basement system into the project so that we will not have to worry in the future about a wet basement. The picture is actually the formwork for the basement slab and the trenches that can be seen are actually what are called grade beams. During this part of the construction all the surfaces had to be kept clean and dry because after the concrete was dry a rubber looking material was glued to the entire exposed area. This rubber like material then actually becomes adhered to the concrete flooring system. The next step was to begin building the steel reinforcing bar system that will become a part of the floor. Each steel bar is about as big around as a man’s thumb and as you can see from the picture, there are hundreds and hundreds of these bars. The steel is what makes the concrete strong and keeps it from cracking. Each steel bar is held off the form surface using a small concrete block and then also each bar is tied to the adjacent bar with small wires. This whole process is very time consuming and is a good part of what takes so long to complete this construction.

While all these steel bars are being sewn in to the floor there is also pipe conduit and pipes that also have to be place between the steel. Just like in the stairwells these pipes need to be in the exact place to run the electric, the telephones, the television cable, the water lines, storm drain lines, sewer lines and many other parts needed in the final building. Again this all has to be done before the concrete can be poured. All these pipes and conduits and coordinating them through the floor. That is quite complicated to accomplish, now remember we are also building walls into this building. Which of these pipes and conduits need to be continued into the wall so that the runs can continue to the next floor?

This next picture finally shows our new church building beginning to rise to the surface. A new plywood form is first placed on the outside, then the monumental task of forming and tying the steel reinforcement bars. The picture was taken fairly early in the process so let me assure you that there were many, many more steel bars in place before the reinforcement part was done in the walls. Once again let’s remember the pipes and conduits and light switches and outlets and TV jacks and everything else. When all of that is in place then the inner plywood formwork is built into place and tied to the outside. Concrete in its liquid state has a lot of pressure against these forms. When this is all ready, all the walls, then the concrete is poured to fill the forms. Some of the steel is placed so that it will continue above the walls to allow for a connection to the next floor.