...from the Project Coordinator's perspective
I am thoroughly enjoying my new responsibility as Project Coordinator for the Lawrence University Campus Center. My fledgling journey has included new vocabulary words, learning about construction techniques and dealing with challenges. It has been an amazing ride.
Prior to taking on the project I thought I knew what excavating was all about! As a child I had read the story of Mike Mulligan and his wonderful steam shovel, Mary Ann. I grew up near a community hospital which kept spreading out, adding more wings. Our neighborhood troup played in these chasms until a chain link fence was constructed, protecting the site and us, but not before we had carved out hiding places and "forts." I realized, once we began work on the Campus Center, I knew nothing about excavating!
This process is incredible! The site is going to afford us fantastic views from all levels of the building. What a site to control and manage as Boldt's giant earth moving machines must carve exact measurements to enable us to create the structure which has been designed. We are removing 60,000 cubic yards of earth from the site. When we say the Campus Center is "nestled into the hill" we mean nestled! The earth being removed is being taken to two landfill areas north of Appleton. Most amazing is the precision with which these monster machines burrow through the soil producing the right dimensions for the next step in construction. The equipment operators are surgeons with hard hats! By the way, there are no more Mary Anns...the steam shovel has been replaced by the backhoe.
Our new building is very close to Sage Hall and indeed connects with Sage on both the surface and below. On the surface, the new structure will connect with the Sage Terrace and foot paths, while the Campus Center delivery link will be underground with a garden on top, at street level. Because our new building is so close to Sage "soil nailing" became a necessity to hold our 1917 building right where it has been for the past 90 years. What is soil nailing? I didn't have a clue. Soil nailing is a process which shores the earth around and under a building. This is accomplished by digging and probing under the building with an auger 65 feet long which bores into the soil at a downward angle. After the bore is complete, long reinforcing bars are inserted into the hole and then they are surrounded by concrete which is pumped into this opening. Once the rebars are cemented in place, a very large cap (much like a bolt) is placed on the exposed rebars before they are anchored to the soil with a layer of wire mesh covered with concrete. It is amazing and one of the expenses the Campus Center Planning Committee, Boldt Construction and the architects, Uihlein-Wilson and KSS, felt essential to maintain the foundations of Sage and the general topography of the slope down to the river.
Drilling caissons was another education venture for me and when next I log on, I'll describe this most creative technique. Lawrence is building a most incredible Campus Center!!!
