building the new, bigger and better Shabbos House Student Center
| Earth Goes Out, Gravel Comes In |
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A series of heavy-duty trucks carted
away dirt excavated from the storm-water recharge basin site, later
followed by a series of trucks bringing loads of gravel to be used as
the basis and fill for the retaining walls for the recharge basin, and
to create a firm basis in the muddy and wet conditions due to the
exceptionally heavy rainfall and the condition of the seasonal high water table.
Albany County gave special temporary permission to pump (under supervision) the filtered water from the recharge basin drywell into the county storm-sewer lines during the construction of the recharge basin. |
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| After much work, the southern and eastern walls of the storm-water recharge basin were able to be built. These walls were made of retaining wall block filled with gravel and backed by 5' of earth, while the northern and western walls which will face the parking area and the building respectively will be built with poured concrete wall and footings. | ||||
| The SE stone retaining wall for the water recharge basin |
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| The southern and eastern potions of the retaining wall. Inside the yet incomplete basin area, remains evidence of the exceptionally relentless rainy season this summer in Albany. | ||||
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Measurements are taken and retaken all
the time, using both sophisticated and simple tools. There's actually a
lot of precision to all this digging and placement of drywell, stone,
drains, and everything else. (>) To create the northern and western concrete walls, additional depth in the storm-water recharge basin had to be dug and drained, to allow for 6' wide concrete footings and their subsequent walls. Much gravel was poured and smoothed to create a uniform base support surface for the concrete in the wet soil.
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| Making Room for the Footings |
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| The area is prepared and smoothed for the mason team to come in and prepare the metal rods and wooden planks for the 6' wide footings for the northern and western portions of the recharge basin wall. | ||||
| Concrete Recharge Basin Wall Footings are Poured |
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| Footings forms below foreground, metal rods jutting out form connectors for rod metal rod formation in the wall to be built above the footings. Pumper truck above set up his supports but his boom is not yet extended to pour the concrete. | ||||
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| Cement trucks on-site behind the pumper truck as concrete is poured into the 6' wide footings to be the base of the NW wall of the recharge basin. | ||||
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| Works spread concrete as it is poured from the boom on the pumper truck. | Tester collects samples from each concrete batch to test pressure, make-up of the concrete. | |||
| The Recharge Basin NW Wall |
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| Tall wooden forms are built around wired metal poles to form the poured concrete walls surrounding the storm-water recharge basin on the northern (facing campus) and western (facing Fuller Rd) sides. | ||||
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| Cement trucks line-up in Fuller Road's turning lane, waiting their turn. Between recharge basin footings and wall, it took quite a few trucks altogether. | ||||
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| This deep alcove in the recharge basin wall is for the dumpster pad, and also assists extra space for larger truck turnarounds. | For the footings we had a green concrete pumper truck, for the walls, it was a blue pumper truck. Both times we had the red and yellow cement trucks from Crainsville. | |||
| Starting on the Driveway |
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| After the curb was cut, the bulldozer clears earth for the start of the driveway area. | For now the front piece of the driveway area is a bed of crushed stone. | |||