It's Friday morning and the 'snorkel truck' has arrived. This machine pumps concrete into
the forms when a direct dumping is not feasible. Since our new
piers begin well below grade we needed it fill the forms.

John and Jimmy have worked all week getting this ready. The forms are made of steel and bolt together like a giant erector set. These guys have done this many times and they look pretty confident about this job.

Here Jeff, (their Foreman, up on the sheeting), makes a final check as the concrete is starting to flow. John handles the hose from the snorkel truck while Jimmy runs the vibrator. We're putting close to seventy yards of concrete in this form alone.

To insure that there are no voids in the structure of the pier they'll use an electric vibrator which buzzes into the mix and eliminates the voids. Too little vibrator and there may be voids, too much and all the aggregate will settle together and cause a weakening condition. There is a skill involved in every job here and we are fortunate to have experienced people doing the work. These guys are fron CJ Forms, another Cardi Corp. subcontractor.


Here's a shot of the finished product. We placed the concrete for the northly pier earlier this week. It came out just fine. The orange paint on the concrete is the line of the new pier's stem wall. This piece is almost perfect, a credit to both the form crew and to the layout guys.

We'll continue building these stem walls for a few more weeks at least. These piers will eventually rise better than thirty feet to the pier caps where the beams will sit. Stay tuned for additional coverage.

Back