Going Up! – 6/18/15

Across the street from our new office is a construction site, and I have a great view of it from my window.  I’m finding that watching the action is a great distraction when I need a quick break from the computer screen.

We moved in at just the right time.  The site prep is mostly finished, and the new student dorm will be going up soon.  Seeing progress on-site is easy.  There is a lot of activity.

I snapped a picture of my view on my first day in the office (see below) and soon realized that it could be fun to document the construction progress in pictures.

Not content to keep the excitement to myself, I am sharing it with you.  My goal is to post one picture per week.  If there is significant activity on the site, like today, I may post more.  Once the training season begins in late-August, it may be a bit difficult to keep up.  Traveling will do that, I guess.

I hope that my Pre-K teacher readers may find ways to incorporate the photo progress into their classroom instruction.  There are so many possibilities for discussion topics, and they all connect to GELDS indicators.  For example, the moving of dirt and installation of the drainage pipes could be a springboard to SC5.4a: “Understands that people have an impact on the environment and participates in efforts to protect the environment”.  In social studies, teachers could possibly touch on SS4.4b: “Describes the roles and responsibilities of a variety of occupations” or SS4.4d: “Explores the uses of technology and understands its role in the environment”.  Reading a book about construction or transportation such as Building a House by Byron Barton or Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton could lead to a connection to CLL5.4d: “Makes real-world connections between stories and real life experiences”.  I am sure that you will think of many, many more!

June 8, 2015 – I took this picture (click the image to see it full sized) not long after arriving to the office, hence the shadow.  My office is on the west side of the building, and the sun is rising in the east, behind the building.  I will try to remember to wait until lunch time to take future pictures.

In this early phase, there were lots of deliveries to the site.  The crane removed several steel supports from the black flat-bed truck and moved them to the right side of the site.  At the bottom, though hard to see, there is a bulldozer building a mound of dirt, and a back hoe loading dirt into the dump truck.

June 15, 2015 – A lot happened in one week!  You can see in the bottom, right side that there were lots of drainage pipes and steel rebar delivered last week.  I can’t wait to see how these items are used!  As I watched construction during the week, I kept thinking, “Well, they’re digging a hole and building a hill”.  Then, on Friday, the workers laid out a steel grid in the hole and poured the concrete slab that you see on the left, center.

I learned something about construction sites that I didn’t know, at least construction sites in downtown Atlanta.  At the bottom, left you will see an area of gravel.  After a dump truck was loaded with dirt to be hauled away, the driver would stop in the gravel area for the whole truck to be rinsed off, especially the tires.  In this way, the dirt, dust, and mud stay in the construction site, not on the city streets.  Once it is on the street, it will get washed into the sewer system, and that’s not good for the water supply and environment!

June 17, 2015 – I couldn’t wait a whole week to take another picture.  The addition of a tall, movable crane is too exciting!  It arrived this morning and began adding table shaped concrete things to the hole that was dug last week.  Every half hour or so, a new flatbed truck arrives with three more concrete shapes.  I wonder what it is going to be!

At the top, right corner of the work site there is new activity.  I noticed Tuesday that a trench had been dug around the perimeter of the site.  Today, there are men and pieces of equipment setting what appear to be the supports for the foundation of the building.  It appears they are using the rebar that is in the bottom, right corner.  We may begin seeing the bones of the building soon!