The School!
Paulette Elementary
Week 8
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Amazing isn't it, we are two months into the construction of the new school. Eight weeks have passed since the ground breaking I remember when I built my house, the excavation just went on and on. I began to wonder if the builder knew I wanted a house. I had resigned myself to believe he was digging me a cave, not building a home. This is a slow process no matter if it is a $100,000 house or a multi-million dollar school. I am not made or patience! I drive by the site daily and feel as though nothing is changing. But then Friday comes (my usual day to stop by and see Mr. Beeler at the site) and I get to tour the site I realize just how much has been accomplished since my last visit.. |
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 Have
you ever decided to fill in a hole in your yard? You haul in some dirt
and spread it out and marvel over your job at leveling the ground. You
sew some seeds and you have grass, you are very happy with yourself!
Then a few months later you find all your work has sunken in.I told you last week how the concrete from the old building had been buried. I estimated the depth of the hole at twenty five to thirty feet. A friend caught me at Food City and began to tell me needed to learn to measure. He bet me there was no hole on that property that deep. Well folks I had to get back down there and take a photo. In the photo below and to the right you can see the trackhoe working inside that hole. I am not sure just how tall a trackhoe is but you can see I am way up above it standing on the bank. This is the natural depression that ran along the back side of the property. This is being filled in and eventually there will be a baseball field on top of it.  The
trackhoe is digging out roots and stumps as I have explained they can't
be buried. He is also flattening the bottom of this hole so the rest of
the equipment can begin layering and packing. As you see in the next
photo the small dozer is pushing in the dirt. He does this a few inches
at a time. After he lays a few inches of soil the packing machine
compresses it in. If we did this when we filled holes in our own yards
we would not end up with depressions in our grass.Watch the area to the north of the site for the next few weeks. As it comes up higher and higher remember it is done in layers. A few inches at a time, and each layer packed. Also note the angle of the dozer in that picture. I wasn't standing crooked when I took that. I'm going to have to ask a science teacher just how this works. I still subscribe to the Newtonian Theory of gravity. Unfortunately, this dozer operator proves Newton wrong on a daily basis. I watched this man defy gravity with this dozer over and over this day. If I were doing that I would be terrified and have white knuckles. This man sings at the top of his lungs and just smiles at me. Amazing! In the video we finally get to see what I thought were some of the footers being dug. In fact this I am told is not a footer we see in the video. Mr. Beeler explained that this is called a pier. He showed me several that have already been put in. He said in a well built steel frame building  piers
are placed below where a beam will rest. Now the floor of the school
will all be several inches of concrete. But anywhere a beam will rest
has to be dug out several feet deeper and poured with concrete. This
allows the beams or major structure of the building to rest an
something far deeper than just a footer. So as you see the steel going
up later you can know that every place the steel contacts the ground,
its concrete base extends several feet into the ground beneath it.Now in the photo with the trackhoe you can see some pipe and fabric. This pipe is several inches in diameter and has holes in the top side. The fabric is water permeable, meaning water can get through the fabric but dirt can't. The pipe is wrapped in this fabric but between the pipe and fabric are tons of rock. So what is the purpose of this? This area is a natural sloping drain of the land. It will be filled in and the level of the land will still have its natural slope. This will allow adequate drainage from the cemetery to the north. The pipe, rocks and wrap will collect excess drainage from the soil and carry it quickly to the natural drain point to the south. This allows the land to remain very dry without causing water to back up or overflow onto the neighbors. It would have been easier and I assume cheaper to build a retaining pond to catch the water to the north. However Mr. Goforth considered all the factors and was troubled by having an area that stays damp. Dampness would bring mosquitoes and being damp could not be mowed well. As we know in this part of the country damp overgrown areas are not just an eyesore but relative condominiums for snakes. Mr. Goforth told me that while it did cost more to drain the land in this new manner, he would not justify the safety risks to the kids to save money. One thing I can say for Director Goforth is that his dedication to student safety is foremost in anything he does. Now with that in mind, next week I will report on the progress at the site, but I want to do something else too. Being at Maynardville Elementary from time to time (my daughter goes there) one of my major concerns with that school is security. Security is paramount to child safety in my opinion. One question that comes up when people talk to me is, "will they do anything about security at the new school." My answer is very much yes! I will follow up next week with the new security measures that will be built into this school. This will cover traffic safety all the way up to how (electronically) it will be decided who has access to the inside of the school during the hours kids are there. I think you'll be impressed. |
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