Week 8 – Pontiac – Clay Kurkechian

It was a slow week in the office this week, which means it was a busy week in the field. I got the chance to go view some of the new GM Shutdown projects as well as revisit some of the existing projects. The first stop was the Start/Stop job we have going on in building C. The guys got done putting up the wire mesh on the walls and as you can see below, they have already put drywall over top of it. As I mentioned in previous posts, this room has to be basically “bulletproofed” due to the vigorous testing that will take place in the area. You can see in the picture below that holes were drilled in the tops of the CMU walls and grout was pumped inside. It’ll be hard for much of anything to pass through these walls now.
Next stop was outside. Ideal has been tasked with removing and replacing 11 fire main valves and sectional repairs around the campus. We excavated down until we reached the valves using a stepped excavation method and placed sheet piling in for precautionary measures. The old valves were removed and new ones were set in place. When the water is turned back on, the vibrations from the water entry/pressure combination could jostle the valves and potentially cause some damage, so we poured approximately 5 yards of concrete on the back side of the valves to secure them in place. The valves were backfilled and the commissioning process has ensued.

This was one of my favorite projects to see thus far and the guys on the job had a wealth of knowledge with civil work and were more than willing to share their experiences. I look forward to seeing what other jobs we have yet to come!