The week before last, members of our team had the opportunity to visit Gate Precast Concrete in Nashville, Tennessee. Gate Precast Concrete is the company making the precast concrete panels that will be the exterior shell for the new City Hall. What does precast mean? Precast is a concrete product that is created offsite then delivered to its project destination for final use
These panels are enormous, and each takes 24 hours to fabricate. They are very labor intensive. The only part of the process that is automated is the concrete mix. Here is a short video that shows part of the process.
Check out the full story about this exciting trip!
The team presented a construction project update during the City Council Meeting this week. The project was reported to be 12 percent complete and on schedule. We also heard about the communication efforts and the public art. The public art project planned for Raleigh’s new City Hall is a generative light installation that will learn and evolve with its environment. The artwork will exist in two realms: the physical environment, experienced through sight, and the virtual environment, experienced through sound. To learn more about public art, visit the City Hall Public Art project page.
(There’s even a link to a survey there. I know how much people here like surveys!)
I wonder how they are measuring “completeness”. If based on timeline, excluding the demolition portion, they started construction in early May (ish), so it’s been 7 months. If they were only 12% done by timeline, they wouldn’t finish until September 2029.
I think that people underestimate how much effort and money goes into site work, infrastructure, and the foundation of a building. Once out of the ground, a tower rises surprisingly fast in comparison.
I just saw on Instagram that the City Hall project is receiving additional funding, which will go toward a public art installation and completing the 13th floor, bringing the building to 17 stories. However, I’m a bit confused - wasn’t it already planned to be 17 stories before this extra funding?
You can’t just add another floor to a building while it’s under construction lol. I bet the magazine is misinterpreting what’s happening, and the building is going to have several shelled floors in it until budget allowed for a fit-up, as is happening here.
Have you noticed the many plastic pipes grouped together at the new City Hall construction site?
What are these pipes and what are they for? This group of pipes is used for a system called a duct bank.
What is a Duct Bank?
A duct bank is an underground utility system for electric and telecommunication cables. It consists of multiple pipes called PVC conduits, which organize and protect cables.
Why Do We Use Duct Banks?
The purpose of duct banks is to organize and protect wires and cables. The underground system protects wires and cables from electrical fires, weather, strain, and more. The PVC pipes also keep the wires and cables separated and orderly. Duct banks are mostly used in larger public buildings that require large amounts of wiring like office buildings, schools, hospitals, and data centers.
. Thank you, sir.