The Far Side (of the river)

It's been a while since I posted about the big bridge project. These photos, in fact, are from back in January or so - that's how far behind I am! If you want to read the story of this bridge construction project from the beginning, see the links listed at the end of this post.

When the men started working on the second bridge support wall - the one on the other side of the river - they had to deal with large amounts of water seeping into their trench. In the photo above you can see several long tubes, which are connected to the pumps, trying to remove the water. Unfortunately the pumps weren't winning the fight against the ever-rising water.

The back-up plan for handling this wet situation was to start putting concrete into the trench on the end where the water was coming in, using a very dry mixture since the concrete would be soaking up some of the water. Eventually the concrete plugged up the place where the water had been coming in, and the men were able to continue to add concrete at that end of the trench, gradually moving from that end toward the other end, displacing the water with the heavier concrete as they went along.

As always, the process involved:

Workers filling buckets with sand, gravel, and water, and delivering those to the mixers.

Materials being poured into the mixers in the correct proportions for this specific part of the bridge.

Allen and Gus, usually, are in charge of running the mixers.

In this case, the men were able to create a chute, so that some of the concrete was simply pushed down the chute to fall into the trench.

There goes the concrete!

The men working down in the trench push and pull the concrete along the footer.

These final pictures show how very much the chute was decreasing the workload. The second mixer was set up near the other end of the trench (which will be more convenient toward the end of this pour).

At this point, though, the men needed to carry the buckets of concrete to the other end of the footer, so they hauled the heavy buckets down into the trench . . .

. . . and carried them along the side of the footer, to pour the concrete in at the right location.

I don't have any pictures of the finished footer from this work day. Boo has suggested that perhaps the camera battery ran out part way through.

Now, here are those links to the previous posts relating to this project:

Las Flores - Our biggest bridge project ever!

More on the big bridge project

Big Bridge Construction Project - still digging

The Big Bridge Project - the first concrete pour

The Big Bridge Project - another update

Another Bridge Construction Update

I've been remiss, so here's an update on the bridge construction project

Another day on the bridge project

Bridge Building Progress at Las Flores

Footnote: Boo noticed that the photo which says "they hauled the heavy buckets down into the trench . . ." actually shows men carrying empty buckets into the trench. They sometimes did that, to haul water up from the river in those buckets. Sorry for the mislabeled photo. LOL