Footers

5 Footers were poured yesterday - these are the footers that are to the right of the center aisle as you face the altar.

The plate with the four anchor bolts pictured directly above will be leveled with mortar underneath.  This will be the platform no which one of the side aisle columns sits.  Directly behind the plate, note the bolts that form a square, these form a pier and will be part of the side wall of the church, the columns that are on the outer wall.

Today they are digging the footers for the left side of the aisle.  The dirt you see at the bottom of this picture is actually where our center church aisle will be!

Footers

This truck carries 10 yards of concrete.  Five of these trucks were out on the site today pouring 50 yards of concrete for the footers.  The concrete pouring will go on for the next couple of weeks.  Notice the mud on the tires - if too much mud makes it out into the street, we will have problems with the Borough.  This is why there is a large stone bed located just beyond the paved driveway into the site.  The trucks roll back and forth over the large stones to clear as much mud from their tires as possible before exiting the site onto Manor Avenue.
Pictured below are two concrete trucks pouring footers on the site.

Stone Basin 2

The pipes have been laid in the basin on top of the fabric, the stones are filling in the basin and finally the fabric will be pulled over top of these layers followed by topsoil and eventually landscaping will finish it off!

Digging Footers

Total Station

This piece of equipment is called the Total Station and it calculates the center of the column lines.  Work has begun this week on the concrete footers for the new church!

Gas Line Relo

The trench is dug and a blue powder is placed in the trench on which the gas line is laid.  This is the "T" where the gas line will head to the new church.

Look closely for the yellow line laying beside the gas pipe.   When you place a PA One Call and they come out to mark where the important lines are they run a meter over the ground and this yellow line signals the  meter as to where the pipeline is located.  PA One Call then places a row of flags up to indicate where to stay away from when digging!

Stone Basins

# 4 stone being dumped this morning for the stone basin work in progress today!

A shot of the stone basin - the black material is fabric that is laid in the basin, #4 stone pictured above will be dumped on top of the fabric and then the fabric will be wrapped over the stone like a gift!  The pipes pictured will carry water around the back of the church, the gym and out under the fire lane away from our buildings.  The finished product will have grass and landscaping over top, all of today's work hidden far below!

Staked & Ready

They are finishing up the final corner of the building pad this morning building it up with soil.  The surveyors were out surveying and putting in the stakes for the building points.  Next comes the concrete footers, pray for sun!

Nuts & Bolts of it all!

Depicted above are the anchor bolts that will go into the concrete footers of our new church.  The size of the bolt depends on how much steel it is holding up.  For example, the larger bolt pictured above is likely to hold up the tower and steeple steel.  These bolts are placed in the concrete and then

these plates will be placed over the bolts (notice the holes in the plates, four of them, one at each corner).  The bolts have to align exactly to go through the holes of the plate which is placed over the bolts.  About 6 inches of the bolt will stand above the plate and a nut will be threaded onto the anchor bolt.  The steel will then rest on the plate, anchored to the concrete footer.

Puddle of Mud

A picture is worth a thousand words....too wet to work....hoping for dryer days!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Equipment is at a standstill eager to dig and roll but for the rain!  Pray for sunny skies so that we can dry the area out and continue working on the building pad for the new church.

Catch This!

This is the basin located near Manor Ave....the concrete catch basin pictured above will have round pipes going through it.  The pipes will carry the storm water through here, back around the back of the new church and it will flow past the school, under the fire lane and exit out the other side into the back of the property.

Footer Reinforcements

These bars serve to reinforce the concrete footers which we hope to begin pouring next week.  These bars are put in place and tied in the footers.

Rolling!

Rolling the soil making ready for the pad.  The soils will be tested later today for compactness and moisture.

Not glamorous, but necessary!

Pictured below are the storm sewer pipes that will be put in place this week from the fire lane, to the gym, the school and out towards the gravel section on Manor Ave.

DH Funk & Sons LLC - Excavators

DH Funk & Sons LLC is a family owned excavating company based out of Columbia, PA.  CH&E awarded them the excavating contract for our new church.  It is their vehicles that you see digging all the dirt out there that is piled up as they prepare the site for the building pad.  This vehicles sits in the area near Manor Ave where there will be a rain garden (water retention).  DH Funk & Sons LLC has over 35 years of experience and provide excavating services in Southeast & Central PA.  Click here to check out their website http://www.dhfunk.com/

High Voltage!

CAUTION - When you see orange fencing, steer clear.  The conduit pictured here is believed to house the phone lines but underneath it is buried 30,000 volt electric lines....that would deliver quite a shock!

Caldwell, Heckles, & Egan

By now you have noticed the construction trailer and signage much of which has the above logo on it!  Our Steering Committee carefully selected our construction company CH&E after an extensive interview, second interview, and bid process.  The 30 year old Lancaster based firm with a presence in PA, MD, and DE employs 70 full time employees and operates a 4,000SF architectural millwork shop.  Patrick Bowman is our project manager and Don Kreider is our site superintendent on the job every day here.  We are very lucky to have their talents working for us on this project!  For a sampling of CH&E projects click here http://www.cheinc.com/proj_gallery.htm

Pews

Solid wood....ergonomically contoured back....wooden kneelers....Just some of the fine characteristics of our carefully selected pews for the new church! We need 108 pews equalling 1,976 lineal feet. Our pew committee sat in countless pews and kneeled on as many kneelers in their careful deliberation of 3 different pew companies products eventually awarding the contract to Miller Church Interiors, Inc of New Holland (representing Sauder Worship Furniture).  These pews feature an exceptionally comfortable seat and back as well as a beautiful gothic shaped pew end with gothic tracery pictured above.  The stain color and kneeler upholstery will be chosen in the near future.