Construction Update - Week of November 19, 2012

Steel erection for the building and vestibule have been completed. To commemorate the setting of the last piece of steel, KLC and KHF employees, city officials and project team members were invited onsite to sign the last beam before flown into place. The signed beam is located on the third floor to allow future viewing once the building is complete, by pushing up a ceiling tile to see the exposed beam above the ceiling grid.

Decking and detailing will continue this week, along with setting precast embeds in preparation for next week's concrete elevated deck pours. Along with setting the precast embeds, the concrete placers will also install the WWF and rebar required within the 2nd and 3rd floor composite floor slabs.

Last beam set-up for signatures

 

Iron workers setting the last beam

 

Last beam in place - NE corner of the building

Structural steel frame complete

Constuction Update - Week of November 5, 2012

Structural steel erection continues; the iron workers are erecting steel from west to east as the crane works its way across the building pad. Steel erection is complete from 1st through the roof at grid lines 1 to 3. The iron workers have begun decking at the second floor and will move to the third floor once that steel is standing.

Steel erection; view looking NW - 11/6

Steel erection; view looking NW - 11/8

Steel erection; view looking NW - 11/9

 



 Underside of the 2nd floor metal deck

 

View of steel structure at the east elevation (looking west)

 



As the steel structure is set and plumbed, the concrete finishers grout the columns with high strength grout.

Formwork surrounding column base plate / bolt settings

Construction Update - Week of October 22

Structural steel erection has commenced! With foundation work complete last week, the 60 ton crane was mobilized and set-up onsite Friday. The first column was set Monday afternoon, NW of grid line E-1 at the corner of the new vestibule link. The steel erection duration will be 5 weeks, with metal decking to start after 3 weeks.

60-ton crane set-up within building pad

 Steel progress - Monday 10/22

 

There is roughly 210 tons of structural steel material on this project. The largest steel member is a W24 x 68 beam at the SE corner of the building

Structural steel staging onsite

 

 

Steel progress - Tuesday 10/23

 

 



Construction Update - Week of October 15, 2012

Foundation activities continued onsite this week. The southwest corner of the site was excavated in preparation for the footing placement at the south gate. An existing water line and fire line, both servicing the KHF building, were uncovered during excavation. Special care will be taken around these 'live' utilities while forming and placing the new footings.

Excavated area at SW corner for exterior gate foundation

Pile shoring at fire line

 

The elevator pit walls were backfilled after the concrete was allowed to cure and reach sufficient strength. The picture belows shows the concrete formwork still in place. You can also see the 2' x 2' x 2' hole for the elevator sump pump.

 

Elevator pit

Construction Update - Week of September 24, 2012

After completion of the auger cast-in-place piles work, the concrete foundation crew mobilized to start the excavation and placement of the pier caps and grade beams. Work commenced in the south-west corner of the building.

Excavated trench for grade beam / pier cap; exposed rebar

Anchor bolt settings at footings

 

Footing line at east elevation

 

 

 

Poured and dug footings within building pad

 

Poured footings (west side of building); bent rebar to tie into slab on grade

Construction Update - Week of September 10, 2012

The pavers within the sidewalk on Douglas Avenue were removed and palletized to be re-installed at the end of the project.

Removal of concrete pavers within sidewalk of Douglas

 

Palletized pavers to be relocated offsite until re-installation

As recommended by the geotechnical report, this project was designed with a deep foundation system (augered cast-in-place piles) to account for the soil having low bearing capacity.

There are 67 augered cast-in-place piles on this project, all over 60 feet in length. They were drilled and installed in four (4) days; work completed last week.

Drilling / pumping grout for the augered cast piles

 

Rebar for the augered cast piles; installed in center of pile

Construction Update - Week of September 4, 2012

Grading operations and demolition work continues...

Excavation onsite exposed existing building foundations and basement walls. Abandoned utility pipes, bricks, and even old door knobs were uncovered during the site excavation. After the unsuitable soils were removed and hauled offsite, moisture controlled fill, low volume change material and limestone screenings were brought back onsite to fill the site back to grade level.

Excavation of site in progress

 

Removal of abandoned utility pipe

Excavated desbris

Exposed existing building foundation

 

Construction Update - July / August

The jobsite trailer was delivered and temporary construction fence installed in preparation for work to begin. The grading and demolition crews mobilized equipment and work officially commenced the last week in July.

Demolition started on the perimeter screen wall that surrounded the existing parking lot. The stucco surface was removed and discarded; the CMU was removed and hauled to a concrete recycling plant. The parking surface was then broken up and removed, the majority of this material was also diverted from disposal in a landfill; most was hauled to a ready mix recycling plant.

Demolition of east screen wall along Douglas Ave

Demolition of concrete paving

Demolition of south screen wall; stucco removed, CMU block revealed

 

The statue that stood at the NE corner of the lot (corner of Douglas & Topeka) was removed and relocated prior to the commencement of onsite demolition. Construction activities did however include the removal and haul-off of the concrete planter and foundation that had surrounded and supported the statue.

 



Construction Update - Introduction

Welcome to the Kansas Leadership Center & Kansas Health Foundation Conference Center project construction progress blog! We are excited to launch this new site to share descriptions of construction activities and post progress photos. You can expect monthly updates throughout the course of the project.