Excavation Starts on Monday Morning!
Paul left last night on the red-eye back to Toronto, leaving the pool cover work completed. Thank you Paul!
The excavator started digging first thing on Monday morning and the first end-dumps started rolling.
Excavation starts - we've 'broken ground'!
Loading one of the first trucks.
Our ‘vision’ was that it would be relatively easy to excavate for the lower level as we could have three trucks waiting to be loaded on Winchester Boulevard. Yes, this was the case! You can see one truck leaving with a full load and three trucks waiting to be loaded.
Trucks on Winchester Boulevard.
The excavation was now underway nicely. The other crew was completing the ‘shoring’ of the east and west walls so the excavation could continue. This involved attaching the steel beams to both walls securely and bracing the bottoms of the walls securely and safely.
After going for his traditional early morning mountain bike ride in Sierra Azul, Pete was directing the shoring crew to ensure the walls will be secured as per the plans.
Pete directs the shoring crew.
It was good to see the shoring crew working in parallel with the excavation. We have rain storms predicted for later in the week and the objective is to complete the excavation before the rains arrive. Thus, working in parallel is exactly what is required.
Excavation in process - you can see that the soil is quite dry. Also, notice the workers attaching the steel beam to the east wall.
After seeing the helper measure the excavation depth, I was concerned that we establish the ‘correct’ depth for the excavation. Changing depth would not be good as either too much soil would be removed or we would have to excavate more. Measure twice, cut once!
Measuring the depth of the excavation.
I drove to Bill Brown Construction offices and worked with Bill and Tim going over the excavation parameters. It is always good to have a white board handy (note for my temporary site office).
Drawing on Bill's white board.
Of course, it is very handy to take a high-resolution photo of the white board to help improve one’s memory of the discussion.
Excavation parameters on the white board.
Another part of the ‘vision’ for the construction was being able to cut the plates off from the slab-on-grade with a sawzall. Jorge started cutting the plate from the foundation as soon as the excavation was ready under the west wall.
Jorge cutting the 2x4 plate from the slab-on-grade.
