Foundation work....

With my thesis defense finally finished, I'm finally getting around to another post about the site. Below are photos from the last 2 months sent by Yiannes and my dad, along with some I took on the one site visit I was able to make.

Foundation work has been moving forward with steady progress. In addition to the retention walls that I discussed in the last post, we've also been shoring up the neighboring foundations with shoring piles cast under their foundations. I was able to see various stages of this process during my site visit.

A backhoe is used to remove the dirt in a small area around the location of the pile to allow access to build a box in which the concrete is poured to make the pile. This is called "an approach pit"

Backhoe building an approach pit

The concrete mold is then built by hand from wood. The stone above the box is the bottom of the neighboring church's foundation. Its such an old building that it wasnt built very far into the ground.

Concrete mold for underpinning pile.

A concrete vibrator is used to remove air bubbles from the concrete after pouring:

Concrete vibrator

Once the concrete sets, the mold is removed. Here you can see a completed piling. Yiannes told me how they close the gap between the top of the poured piling and the bottom of the foundation but I can remember how now...

Two photos of completed piling and approach pit.

I will be making a trip over soon to check how this progress is proceeding but id imagine most of the shoring work is completed by now and we are on to pouring elements of the foundation now. Lots going on!

Here are few more images of the construction of the soil retention walls:

Drilling holes for the retention wall pilings

Drill bit

Completed soil retention wall on east side of site - note the pilings.

Shoring and foundation work begins!

Its been a few months since our last construction update as we've been waiting for permits from the D.O.B. and then for the holidays to pass to get the ball rolling on the foundation work. (Apparently, in NYC, you need to use an Italian carting company to remove waste spoil from foundation work and they don't work on holidays!)

As of this week, the ball is officially rolling and we are now putting the beginnings of the foundation in below street level. Holly and I walked by early on Monday morning and saw that the equipment was already in place to start work:

Drill and pile driver in place to start foundation work.

I've been really busy writing up my thesis so I haven't had a chance to go by the site for more pictures but Yiannes has sent me the following images to keep us up to date. 

The first step of the foundation work is to shore up the edges of the site by building soil retention walls around the building's future footprint. This will prevent soil from caving in from the neighboring lots as we dig down to put the foundation and substructure in. This is done by driving piles down into the soil at regular intervals and then adding wood planks between the pilings to form a wall.

The process begins by drilling a hole for the piling:

Drilling a hole for the shoring piling

The drill then converts into a pile driver:

Pile driver drives a 20' pile in.

The first pile is in, with a few feet left above.

First 20' pile is in!

 Yiannes models with the wrench that is used to add drill bit sections:

Yiannes and a big ass wrench.

Progress should be happening very quickly over the next few months and we will try to keep up with blog posts as frequently as possible. The next post will have more detail about the shoring and foundation process.