When I arrived Friday morning, the first of the concrete forms was nearly completed. These forms, placed at both ends of the repair, were filled with reinforced concrete on Saturday morning, then cured to a rating of 1000 psi (of what, I am not sure -- I am still new at this!). In the first picture, the final side of the first form is lowered into place and then secured. Later, in the afternoon, the same procedure began on the other end of the repair, but not before something had to be done first.If you check out the Part 1 post, look closely at the second photograph. On the near end of the pipe, next to the ladder, you will notice a scraggly edge to the original pipe where it meets with the replacement section. Well, that stuff, consisting of old mortar and a fabric bonding material (known as a "diaper" among the crew), had to be removed before the forms could go up. This already had been done on the first end, and I was asked to finish the other end. With a jackhammer.
Yes, you read that right. A jackhammer.
I'm not talking your typical New-York-City-construction-zone jackhammer; this was a smaller, more compact handheld unit. It was still heavy and it still made a helluva racket, but it is
designed for more "surgical" jobs than simply ripping holes into concrete. Well, I had never operated a jackhammer before, so I got a crash course on how to use it. Suffice it to say that I think I earned my entire week's pay on Friday morning! While on break, I grabbed a self-portrait. Note the mask at my chin; without it, I'd have been literally eating concrete chunks for breakfast.Anyway, I managed to finish the job by lunchtime (I should note here that lunchtime for me was shift change for everyone else, and vice versa. Remember, my schedule was dictated by the fact that I had training in L.A. on Wednesday; otherwise, I would have been on the 12a-12p shift). After lunch, I attended the noon safety meeting, and Susan told me that this would be my last shift at the site. I spent the afternoon as "top man" once again, this time for a cement crew who had to seal the welds from the inside. It was during this part of my shift that I began learning hand signals for guiding a crane's payload to its destination, in this case several 25-pound bags of concrete mix lowered into the pipe's manhole, five at a time.
In the
final picture I took at the site, you can see the nearly-completed form, ready for the concrete to go in. Several layers of rebar form the reinforcement grid, while fiberglass rods stretch from one side to the next to keep the form from collapsing. As I left, the second form had just been getting started. As I write this, I imagine that the hole is nearly covered back up by now. Soon, we will go back out to the site to retrieve our equipment and bring it back to Lake Mathews. One think I cannot deny about this project: This was, without a doubt, a learning experience!Well, Friday night found me with opportunity to check out the town and spend another night before leaving (besides, I didn't know I was done until after 12 noon, which is check-out time -- I was committed to another night). So, I found an On the Border restaurant and went in. When I lived in Nebraska, I regularly bought the salsa they marketed, and I wanted to sample their cuisine. The food was quite good, but that's not what made it a good night.
This young lady sat next to me. When we introduced ourselves, she said her name was Tirza (It's Old Testament. I looked it up; it's the name of one of Zelophehad's five daughters, whatever that means. Hey, I don't read the Bible, but I can say it's mentioned in Numbers). Anyhow, we ended up having a stimulating conversation that nearly closed the restaurant! Too bad she had a boyfriend; I found her to be a very interesting woman! Oh, well. At least I am slowly dipping my toes back into the social waters again. It's about damn time, too!
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