So late last night the farm manager got a surprise call. Would it be ok for the building guys to start building the new warehouses on the site of the new farmyard? Jennifer answered: ok.
The contractor told Jennifer that many of their current worksites are unsuitable for heavy equipment because of the rain. The contractor thought that our site would be fine because of soil composition and elevation. So this morning, two very large cranes arrived on the new farm building site and a large complement of builders too -- yep they are erecting a lot of steel over the next few days.
They arrived around 7 this morning (the sun was not up yet,) but there was a lot of site prep. Jennifer told me that she counted 40 builders on our site. I asked the contractor, why so many. He said it's simple, most of our sites are too damp for heavy equipment and so we have a bunch of guys with nothing to do for the next two weeks. We will complete the job in two weeks. They moved at speed set up lights so that the site was illuminated before sunup, and teams of guys went around the site finding the "right steel" so that they could be raised in the correct order. Younger guys (apprentices) broke out the grinders and started cleaning the steel bolts that were set in the foundations. Each piece of steel weighs something like 6 tons. You have to understand that these are massive warehouses. They are 40 by 250 meters and are 15 meters tall, tall enough that a semi can drive right in (we actually have a loading dock).
By 10 am one beam was already raised in place (there are something like 40 in all). They borrowed our trencher (it was part of the deal instead of renting one), to start the trench for water, electricity and gas utilities that under the UK code are buried at different depths. I mean it was 10 am and the two lads digging the trench from the country road to the new warehouse site were about 2/3rd of the way. The contractor told Jennifer that the under-road trenching machine would be delivered tomorrow...again the result of the terrible weather where sites are unable to take delivery or use equipment because of the water levels.
Note: Thank you for your comments about the curing time for the concrete. Heavy machinery is not circulating on the concrete pads. They will use scissor lifts but only next week, when the pads will have fully cured for two weeks. The contractor is concerned with the edges of the pads and not where the steel beams are bolted, they anyway sit on deeper concrete posts that were poured 10 days earlier.
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