Early morning start times are required to pour concrete for the large structures and buildings at the main AWP construction site just north of Santee Lakes.
Our crews were up dark and early on Friday, November 10 for another one of these pours. On this particular day, crews focused on the future Water Recycling and Solids Handling Facilities.
Roughly 220 yards were poured on two separate portions of what will be a secondary clarifier structure part of the WRF. This work began before the sun came up with 22 trucks hauling in concrete for this location alone.
An additional 58 yards were poured on the WRF primary clarifiers and 40 more yards on the SHF thickening and dewater building.
“There’s a number of factors that go into why the early morning pours are occurring,” said Mark Niemiec, Director of East County AWP. “Temperature is one of them. We want to be able to try to keep that concrete as cool as possible, during and right after the pour occurs. Out here in the East County, temperatures tend to rise throughout the day and to date, most of those early morning concrete pours have started around 3 am with the concrete trucks coming in.”
The cooler conditions prevent heat from evaporating and leaving stress cracks in the concrete.
In addition, the early start allows the concrete trucks to avoid major traffic and get to the site right away.
“And it’s during these activities that we really appreciate our neighbors’ patience and understanding,” Niemiec added.
More than half of the concrete required for construction has already been poured. Only a few early morning pours remain.