Vancouver House (1400 Howe St) | 151.5m | 52Fl | Completed

[officedweller]

Strange that Westbank didn't issue a news release about the pour.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by osirisboy

The big pour is happening right now

Originally Posted by Otis_Van

Got a quick shot on the way by at about 11am. This was MAJOR. Four pumps, and about ten concrete trucks standing by with more circling the block.

My photo, taken today

Thanks for the heads up and the early pic. I had other plans today but as soon as I saw your posts I headed out the door.

[jollyburger]

Do those steel supports along the side get removed as the building goes up?

[excel]

Wow impressive.

[bb1510]

Some questions:

What's that cylindrical concrete tube by the steel supports?

For steel supports like that, are they typically custom manufactured for the project?

I am confused with the scaffolding; is is used like rebar where the concrete will cover it or is it holding up the rebar, so there's a void space?

[mcminsen]

March 19 '16, my pics
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[Marshal]

Again, thanks everyone for the photos. Wish I had the time to get over for a look.

The large steel diagonals are temporary and will be removed as they go up. They are custom made for each project. They do a big job, in which a failure would trigger big trouble: loss of time, messed up schedule & timing, and of course money & lawsuits.

The scaffolding was simply used to hold up the top level of the reinforcing steel. They are now doing nothing and are entombed within a larger 'interior zone' which is, structurally speaking, a big mass (which is its purpose) of concrete which does not have any reinforcing worth mentioning, because it has nothing 'pulling' on it. I can't tell from the photos, but my assumption is that this mass is required because of the atypical forces that will act on the foundation from the overhanging nature of the tower.
The tower is inherently off balance. At the largest scale, the building will be trying to tip over onto the bridge. So, there will be larger than normal tensile components running up the core and Howe Street side to tie it down to the foundation. (Although I see no evidence of this so far, and I think I should. Just have to wait and see.) This tipping load will be transferred to the foundation and its action will be to try to rotate it. To prevent this they need a very large mass simply to overcome the static load of the structure. Of course, while one side will be trying to pull up, the opposite side will have atypical loads from everything pushing down. As well, like with any other building, the tower-foundation tie-in will have to deal with wind and earthquake loads.

As for the "cylindrical concrete tube by the steel supports," an educated guess would say that it is a storm connection to collect runoff water.

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

Thanks for the heads up and the early pic. I had other plans today but as soon as I saw your posts I headed out the door.

Haha. When I noticed them doing the pour and posted that I thought of you. I figured you'd wanna get down there and check it out!

Thanks for the pics!

[osirisboy]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Do those steel supports along the side get removed as the building goes up?

They are just there to support the walls from caving in. The south wall has no underpinnings like the other walls. They will be removed has they build up

Trump had the same thing on the western wall

[mcminsen]

March 20 '16, my pics

[Design-mind]

Wow a second crane going up. Pretty close proximity to the first crane.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by Design-mind

Wow a second crane going up. Pretty close proximity to the first crane.

The second crane that you see the bottom section for will be inside the tower. Here's some info from Regina14's previous posts.

Originally Posted by Regina14

There will be a 2nd luffer erected in the next 1-2 months using the first one. Both will follow the tower up. The first one will be external and top climbed. The 2nd crane will be internal and bottom climbed.

Originally Posted by Regina14

The crane that is currently standing will be top-climbed up along the outside of the building and will be used to take down the other crane. Then it will be climbed down like you would normally see on other external cranes. In other cases of internally climbed cranes, that are too high to be reached by a mobile. They use a crane that is erected on the roof of the building. These cranes are called Derricks. After the tower crane has been dismantled, the Derrick crane can be broken down into pieces small enough to be managed with carts and dollies, and taken down using the elevator. In some cases an even smaller derrick crane is used to lower the larger one.

[mcminsen]

Some shots today from ground level.



March 30 '16, my pics

[mcminsen]

And the usual shots looking down from the Howe Street ramp. Looks like the bottom set of diagonal supports have been removed from the south end of the pit. There used to be seven.



March 30 '16, my pics

[Marshal]

It's interesting to see how long they are leaving the white wrap to help control to curing of the extra thick portion of the big pour.

[cairnstone]

Originally Posted by Marshal

It's interesting to see how long they are leaving the white wrap to help control to curing of the extra thick portion of the big pour.

At most 28 days, Bridges only get 7 days of wet cure. I'm surprised they used poly for this as considering the time of year and the availability of chemical curing agents that seal the concrete.

[Marshal]

Originally Posted by cairnstone

At most 28 days, Bridges only get 7 days of wet cure. I'm surprised they used poly for this as considering the time of year and the availability of chemical curing agents that seal the concrete.

All bridges? Fascinating. The engineers I work with never use these handy rules of thumb, instead, they make careful plans and then monitor things through field and lab testing. Maybe civil projects aren't so delicate and can just operate 'off the cuff.'

Yes there are chemicals that can be used to control all sorts of different aspects of concrete placement: curing agents, plasticizers, aeration controllers, etc. But using poly is not to speed up the curing time, but rather, to control the moisture levels near the surface (12-18") and to encourage the cure to take place evenly over the optimal period of time the engineering specifies. Accounting for atmospheric conditions is, of course, a main defining parameter.

The 28 day strength is also just one aspect. Generally speaking, all concrete reaches a 28 day strength, after which, further strength increases drop off quickly - though all concrete continues strengthening (growing the chemically induced bonds) forever (virtually). But, you need to control other aspects. Cracked and crumbly concrete also reaches a max at 28 days if you reduce the sample accordingly. The aim is to achieve a monolithic even strength throughout along with a monolithic surface that will work to refuse the entry of foreign materials (esp. water) over time.

[Otis_Van]

Walked by earlier this evening and they were unloading the last section of the second crane from a truck. Presumably it's going up this weekend?

Also, they moved the "hut" with all of the glass and cladding samples right next to the sidewalk along Pacific. You can get within a foot or two of them now. The metallic claddings look pretty cool.

[officedweller]

I'm still wondering what's behind the corner bench:


Original pic by McMinsen

[osirisboy]

They have all the parts for the second crane all along Howe street. My guess is that they'll erect it this weekend

Also, they have installed some majorly tall sections of rebar, tallest I've ever seen

And re that angled section, it's bizarre that it's cut out like that. Seems too deep to be utilities etc