Charter Street. If all goes according to schedule, Charter Street will be partially resurfaced this week—on Wednesday. The plan is to blacktop one lane and use the remaining gravel for loading-dock access. The other lane will be blacktopped later. Last week workers installed forms in preparation for pouring concrete curbs, sidewalk, and the apron at the loading-dock driveway. Friday afternoon workers were energetically preparing for concrete pours, clearing areas around manholes and grading the sidewalk north of the entrance to our loading dock. By about 2 pm concrete was being poured for the driveway apron. Provided the weather remains favorable, the Charter Street project will soon be complete.
Tower excavation. Last week an all-terrain crane was installed in the excavation to move materials from place to place. The footings that were poured the week before now have reinforcing bars installed in preparation for pouring walls for the sub-basement level of the tower. Excavation continues Along University Avenue and the tall, vertical walls, which are almost down to their final depth, are being stabilized with rebar and concrete. It won’t be long before the earthen ramp down to the bottom of the pit is removed and walls will begin rising all around the tower base.
Tower Crane. The crane in the excavation is a temporary measure needed because the construction team has not yet erected the tower crane, which will rise 260 feet above the bottom of the excavation—significantly taller than Daniels or Shain towers. This part of the project has been delayed because it cannot be done without blocking most of University Avenue and agreement needed to be reached with the city of Madison about how best to mitigate traffic problems. Also, a special mobile crane needs to be moved to our site to lift the tower crane into position. Current plans are for the base, tower, and turntable to be erected the weekend of May 3-6. Friday night lanes will be closed on University Avenue and work will happen Saturday and Sunday. The boom, jib, and counterweights will be erected two weekends later. Safe erection of a tower crane requires low wind and no lightning, so these plans could be changed if weather becomes a problem. The tower crane base will be on the University Avenue side of the excavation and requires a large pour of concrete to make the base heavy and stable enough to support the crane.
Mock-up. Work is proceeding in the mock-up area. Several different types and shapes of columns have been poured and concrete trucks are often seen entering the site. Because of the special design of floors in the new tower—concrete surrounding spherical plastic voids to make the floors lighter—a special mockup of a concrete floor is being made at Wingra Stone in Madison. That is planned for Friday of this week.
Loading Dock. This week the loading dock will be unusable several times. There will be a rebar delivery from 6 to 7:30 am Wednesday and Charter Street will be repaved on Wednesday (weather permitting), so the dock will be closed most of that day. There will be a large concrete pour requiring a pump truck in the loading dock on Thursday from 11 am to 4 pm. On Tuesday, the loading dock will be tied up for a couple hours because a large quantity of paper that needs to be shredded will be loaded onto a truck that will take the paper to a disposal site.
This information is up-to-date as of Friday afternoon. Email bulletins will be provided as needed.
John Moore and Bob McMahon