Construction Commonalities and Differences

While on a field visit, I observed the activities taking place at both Whiting Turner's new VT Basketball Facility and Branch's VT New Residence Hall West and record their similarities and differences. Similarities included tool use such as hand chisels for detailing Hokie-Stone; site utilization which included the use of storage containers for miscellaneous materials, use of dumpsters for waste created on the job, and on-site administrative trailers, and use of large gravel at access points to keep access easy for machinery. Both had ideological mock walls on site that gave a visual representation of what would be happening through the majority of the building. Both also had scaffolding for workers to use to build up the Hokie-Stone.

Differences between the two sites include the different types of machinery used to carry out construction tasks, such as the use of forklifts instead of a crane to lift materials to the top of scaffolding; different forms performing actual construction activities such as applying parging all at once to CMU bearing walls or going from section to section when applying the parging; the different styles of bulding materials (Basketball facility is about 50/50 precast concrete and Hokie-Stone, while New Res. West is dominantly Hokie-Stone with precast concrete trim used throughout the design); the different styles of on-site temporary machinery such as concrete mixers; the precast style of production (Basketball facility had its precast concrete delivered to exact specifications, whereas New Res. West has precast concrete delivered with correct details but had cuts made on-site to accommodate adjustments); and also the points of access to the site in order to have easy access and a certain traffic flow for the site (Basketball facility has 3 accesses, and New Res. West has 2 accesses).

Different sites have different ways of handling their jobs because companies have their own standards, creating diverse work environments for different jobs. Regulations must be established and vocalized to all coming on a site in order to ensure that nobody messes with the standards of that company, in turn keeping everyone safe.

Industry Day

Virtexco had a crane set up with a mock hallway and accompanying HVAC system that was to be hoisted and installed on top of the hallway.Before making the pick, the crane operator went over some basic knowledge for making picks with us. He talked about how the rigging attached to the unit has to have tags on them giving important information about the rigs such as weight limits. Then one student was given a crash course in the hand signals used between a crane operator and a signaller. (The hand signal chart is below.) Then the crane operator worked with the student to determine the radius necessary to make the pick to move the mock HVAC onto the mock hallway. The crane operator wrote down the numbers on the dash so that he could take the boom back to the same location. Then Rusty and Gregg hooked the rigging for lifting the mock HVAC onto the boom. After all this was done was when the unit could finally be picked.

A fellow student using the hand signals to communicate with the crane operator. Right now, he is telling the crane operator to lower the unit down (or lower). Mike Depp is holding the tag line leading out the right side of the picture which is used to stabilize the unit and prevent it from rotating on the boom while in the air.







This is the diagram of hand signals that is mounted on the side of the crane.








The fully constructed mock hallway with HVAC unit installed on top. One cross brace was screwed in on each end to add some structural integrity to the demo.





Spectra I.S. and American Infrastructure are 2 companies that are integrating GPS units into the field to utilize the ability to immediately update changes that correspond to both actual fieldwork and office drawings. By using the GPS technology, both the field and the office are on the same page at all times during the project. This use of technology allows for people in the office to be able to see what is happening in the field at real time and also makes automatic changes to drawings to match actual work. The technology works in reverse also by semi-automating machinery to aid operators to perform the right job the first time. For example, the computer reads the drawings, sends the data to a grading caterpillar, and sets the plow to the correct depth instantly with automatic adjustments when needed to allow operators to grade areas perfectly without need for back fill.

This is some of the new GPS equipment used in the field that transmits changes back to the office. The picture on the left is a surveying tripod with gps computer attached at the middle (picture on the right) and a digital auto-level. The other transmitter is in the background on the right of the left-picture sitting on the wall. The picture on the right is the GPS computer with a site plan on the screen. All this technology uses Wi-Fi and bluetooth technology to communicate.


Chandler is a concrete specialty contracting company that brought a mixing drum truck and a flat bed with some reinforcing materials and forklift mounted on the back. I spoke with one of Chandler's employees about the gauges on the left side of the truck near the cabin of the truck (picture on the right). He told me that one of the gauges measured how much water he had left in his tanks to mix into the drum with the concrete mix, and that the other gauge told him how much additive he left in his tanks to mix in with the concrete in order to create the best consistency. I also talked to him about how the concrete was mixed and how it was forced out of the drum when pouring. He explained to me that the inside of the drum is designed with a screw thread pattern that while turning one direction pushes the concrete mix and water down towards the cabin end of the drum, which causes the mixing of the concrete. To force the concrete out the back end and down the chutes, the rotation of the drum is reversed which causes the screw-thread pattern to grab the concrete from the cabin end of the drum and pull it towards the back end, finally forcing it out the opening and down the chutes.

PERMATILE is a company that will build just about anything out of concrete. They build concrete piping, mats, electric manholes, wet and dry wells, retaining walls (which are eco-friendly), traffic barriers, box culverts, Hy-Span instant bridges, and complete buildings. The picture to the right is a possible mock wall with examples of the types of insulation and structural steel they might use (batt insulation, ridged insulation, etc...)


All pictures taken at Industry Day can be found at the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/beagleyk/IndustryDay#

Sketches

I listed component materials in the actual sketch.

• Prefabricated stringers
• Structural Concrete
• Bolts & Nuts

Materials are labeled.


















Materials are labeled.

New VT Basketball Construction Observations

Base for future street light at the drive-in for the facility.








Exposed steam pipes. Nobody was working in this area while I was observing but I figured it would be a good thing to get a picture of.







This is the form for the street access to the steam pipes once the project is complete.

Two laborers installing lightning guard around the windows along the Northeast wall.

Two laborers mixing concrete back by the Southeast corner.







This is just a cool picture of the Hokie-Stone at the back entrance at the Southeast corner.








Two laborers working with the outside electrical consoles.






There were three laborers hauling Hokie-Stone and mortar from inside the main site to in front of Cassell Coliseum. They were building up Hokie-Stone columns which will then have a precast cap block placed on top with a half-inch recesession for a metal plaque to be mounted into.