Fire (Station) in the Hole

Posts Tagged ‘Pile Driving’

With the 2nd floor walls ready to go up some of the supporting piles had to come down. Crews started cutting away on Monday and the crane pulled them up Tuesday morning. This is video of the first pile hauled away at about 7:45am. (Sorry for the shaky & glary video quality I had to use my regular camera because my camcorder’s battery was dead. Murphy’s Law & all that.  Then there is the whole sun facing me thing. ) Anyway, play on the best you can.

OK I’m going to go slight off topic here to hawk the latest Cherrydale swag. Since the CCA website is down due to technical difficulties I thought I’d help out and post pics so you know what you are buying. Just click here or on the Cherrydale Swag tab up top.
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Now back to construction. After, what 15 years, maybe more, of fighting over where Fire Station 3 would get built ground was officially broken today and quite unceremoniously. No ribbon cuttings with ginormous scissors, no golden digging utensils, no Channel 4, 5, 7, or 8. Just a lonely shovel and his operator dig, dig, digging.

Hey this post seemed like it needed a little drama.

Enough with words and onto the pictures.

Shoveling Away

All In A Day’s Work: The hole so far. You can see the wood planks inserted in the piles as the shovel digs down.In the background is old pipes and conduit that was dug up. Probably 80 to 100 years old. Looking due east.

Same hole looking a little more NE

Now looking east.

A view of the land that will host the Koons Garage. Hard to believe this was a street 4 months ago.

Week One of pile driving is over and the crain and hammer and near-neighbors can enjoy a well deserve respite from the clanging and vibrations. Approximately two dozen piles were herded into the ground. Only about 55 more to go. After that the sheeting gets pushed in between the piles and wala! instant retaining wall for excavation. When the fire station and garage are completed the piles and sheeting are then removed.

It takes about 30 minutes from set-up to the final tap of the hammer. As readers of this blog though you can see the whole process take place in under 2 minutes, 30 seconds. And in YouTube HD too. Wooooo. Hit the HD button after you hit play for best picture quality If you have a slow Internet connection or computer you may need to let the video cache first.

OK onto the pics. Here is a Week One wrap up:

Close Up of the Hammer

Supporting Piles For the Fire Station 3 Temporary Retaining Wall.

Piles for the Koons Garage Temporary Retaining Wall. The installed piles are on the far left.

Crain and Hammer Off Duty At The End Of Week One