Day 58

Today, the cement arrived. The forms will no longer be just forms.

Day 55

The cement for the walls should start to be poured on Friday so final touches to this stage of the concrete forms were being done today. The portable classrooms arrived today as well so power, voice and data cables will have to be trenched and hooked up. Once that is complete, the whiteboards will be hung, the carpet will be installed and the desks will be moved in.



The wall forms on the east side of the expansion



The view of the expansion from the south



Our newest classrooms



Promoting our capital campaign to pay for the construction

Day 51

ICF walls go up much faster than traditional "stick-built" walls. Just check out this progress...

This view is of the west wall of the expansion

This view shows the height of the eastern wall forms

Here is a shot of the entire site showing the rise of the wall system

Day 50

The weather has improved dramatically so progress was measurable. The next portion of the ICF wall system was started with window frames inserted prior to the next cement pour.

Window frames in the rising ICF wall system



Cement being poured on the newly extended sidewalk next to the bus parking

Day 48

I know I just updated the blog yesterday but I wanted to share a couple of other projects Con-Tech, our contractor, was doing today for the school while the construction site is drying out.



We are renting some portable classrooms to accommodate the extra students until the expansion is completed so Con-Tech is excavating the area where the portables will be placed.



The sidewalk alongside the bus parking is being extended 60 feet so that our student can access all of the buses from pavement.

Day 47

After a huge amount of rain the construction crew was able to finally back fill the grade beam wall. This fill provides support and access for the next level of ICFs.




If you look closely you can see how the excavated area next to the wall has been filled in.



With all this rain, it looks like we are building a swimming pool not a building.



An SCS water feature.

Day 41

Today is a big day. The perimeter ICF grade beams and the standard centre grade beam got poured. When I first started watching the crew work, I thought there was a lot of standing around and gawking but it turned out each person had a specific task to perform and the crew worked very well together. The progress was both obvious and quite remarkable.




In order to reach the ICF grade beam, a truck mounted boom pump was used.



The pace of the crew pouring the cement is such that multiple cement trucks were used to ensure an uninterrupted supply of cement.



Each of these guys has a specific task to perform as the cement is poured into the forms.

Day 36

The workers continue to prepare the ICF foundation wall. The forms are straightened, supported and anchored in preparation for the concrete.