February 28, 2015

This was a productive week especially for the masons! We had a big concrete pour on Tuesday, and the bricklaying started the next day.  Look at how much was accomplished by the end of the week!

The SOG was ready for the concrete pour on Tuesday, February 24.

Many hands make light work!

All done! 

Starting on the walls for the library media/student center

There was also a concrete pour for the sidewalk that connects the new classroom building to Building A.  Students will now have access to P11, P13, and P17 once again. 

Masons are working on the Student Center part of the new building which will house the Student Services Coordinator, counselors, speech pathologists, behavioral health therapist, our instructional coaches, and the Tripler SMHT program.  There will be rooms for meetings and for testing, too.  

February 22, 2015

The walls are going up for the library media/student center!  After all the infrastructure is done and the workers start on the walls, I feel like we are really making progress.  Of course, the infrastructure and the foundation are critical to the building, but I feel so much more excited when I can see the structure forming.

Not too many photos last week, but hopefully, I'll remember to take more this coming week.

Getting the area ready for our covered playcourt on the side of the school facing Waianae Avenue

Tiles were stacked and ready-to-go!

Yeah!  The walls are being built for the library media/student center!

This is the ladder that goes up to the roof of the classroom building.  It was installed last week, and no, it will not be out in the open.   

It's a little hard to envision, but these are "clouds" on the second floor of the classroom building.  Similar to the clouds in the administration building, they are intended to absorb some of the sound since the ceilings are so high.  The red pipes are part of the fire extinguisher system.  And yes, the colors are rather bright - green and gold with light blue doors on the second floor. (The first floor is blue and red.) The colors will match the floor tiles which we are anxiously waiting for.

February 14, 2015

It's Valentine's Day and Monday is Presidents Day! Right now, the weather is miserable - rainy and windy - so surely, the construction crew would not have worked today.  Hopefully, the weather will improve over this 3-day weekend.

In my last blog, I mentioned that the rain was a concern for me after the workers poured the library media/student center footings last week.  Bob Purdie from the DOE Facilities Branch emailed me that the water is not a bad thing.  He stated, "As long as the rain is not driving, and thus washing away the surface cement, an excess of moisture is a big boon to the curing process.  What you don't need is the silt and other floated debris, but that is easily washed or blown away from the surface later." Thank you, Bob, for clarifying my misconception!  His email was actually very informative.  He added, "In fact, concrete, properly batched, will continue to cure over its whole thousands of years of life and if temperature cracks occur, the presence of excess water without tensile stress will allow "autogenous" healing or sealing of the crack by re-activating the latent cements present." I am learning so much by watching and asking questions.  Thanks, Bob!

Once workers pour the last of the pad for the library media/student center (I think it'll be this coming week), worker will start on the building's exterior.  This is a 2-story building as well and will house a state-of-the-art library, a media center and technology lab, and lots of room for our counselors, instructional coaches, speech language pathologists, our Student Services Coordinator, the Tripler School Mental Health Team. There will be several meeting and testing rooms; we've been scrambling to find available space for meetings so this will be a welcome addition to our school.

I didn't take too many photos this week, but here are a few:

Pouring the footings for the Student Center part of the new building.

After the concrete hardened, workers took off the footing frames.  Next, we have a concrete pour for the SOG padding.

I will always wonder how they get the heavy cement up the long neck.  How does it work on much taller buildings?

Smoothing out the concrete on the pad for the front of the library media part of the building

Meanwhile, work continues on the special education classroom next to J-building.

Continued Progress!

Monday's weather was unfortunate.  High winds and heavy rain in the morning meant that the concrete pour could not be completed.  Workers poured the last of the footings for the new library media/student center, but the padding couldn't be poured.  The heavy rain meant that some of the work needed to be delayed because the ground was not dry enough.  We're hoping to get back-on-track next Wednesday with the pouring of the remaining SOG areas.

Notice the water that's accumulated in the footings? This is after the concrete was poured.

This is how it looked the next day - we were lucky to get that pour in so workers could prepare the slab on grade.

We temporarily relocated students in P11, P13, and P17 so workers could work on the walkway from the new building to Building A. The roof for the walkway will be completed during the summer, but the sidewalk had to be done now. 

We took a tour through the new classroom building.  The colors are rather bright, but I think we'll get used to them.  I really love the tiling in the student restrooms!  This is the girls' restroom.  

The flooring still has to be installed, but this is how it looks on the inside of the girls' restroom.

And this is the outside of the boys' restroom!  Do you know how we will remember which is their restroom?  Blue for boys; green for girls.  

By the way, the wash basins are not in the restrooms; they're outside.  Now kids can't play around because the teachers can see them when they're washing their hands.

This is the entryway on the bottom floor of the building.  Workers are still installing the other entry doors as well as some of the windows that are nearer the ceilings.