Week 23, Part 1- Operations Building & Clarifier details

The Operations building progressed with a stem wall pour. This is on top of the footing we poured last week. On top of this stem wall we will have a CMU wall installed by a masonry subcontractor. "CMU" stands for "concrete masonry units" or cinder blocks, as some people might call them. The rebar dowels you see in the 2nd picture are threaded up through the blocks-







Once the stem walls were stripped of forms and cured the interior space was backfilled. The next phase will be electrical & plumbing installation-





While waiting for the electrical and plumbing subcontractors the walls and backfill are kept covered by concrete blankets-



During this time the forms for stair support walls on the PREM were built and covered also-





And finally some fun with photography-

In the Treatment building the Clarifier tanks had concrete slopes built on the floors. To smooth-finish these slopes, the rods which held the forms have to be burned back and the holes grouted over. The first picture here with the cutting torch was taken at 1/8th of a second, allowing the spark trails to be seen-



This next picture was taken at 1/1,000th of a second which freezes the individual spark-particles in the air, rather than showing the motion trail. The two pictures show the exact same activity, just at different speeds-