Tag Archives: concrete

Is Crossing the Runway Now a Good Idea?

At the fly in at Concrete last year, I was looking up the runway at approaching planes.  There are designated crossing points for the runway but people are able to cross elsewhere if they like.  I saw a guy with canes heading towards the runway.  He was not moving fast so I figured he would wait for the landing aircraft.  He kept moving but I was sure he would check whether it was safe to go.  Nope, he just kept on going while a plane was on short final.  At some point he must have realized that crossing a runway can come with some peril and he suddenly started moving a bit faster – not fast, but at least faster.  Meanwhile, the pilot on approach either didn’t see him or decided he would miss him so didn’t go around.  The whole thing was one of those that you witness with a little incredulity.

Concrete Fly In

The time between me doing something and its appearance on the blog can vary wildly.  Sometimes, I will aim to get something squeezed in here soon after it happens but that is the exception.  Usually, I have stuff posted out quite far in advance.  As I come up with new topics, they get added to the schedule and, if a topic doesn’t get written about promptly, it can really disappear into the distance.  Such is the case with the Concrete fly in of 2023.

There will be several posts that make it on here from that event in the coming weeks.  I have started writing them up but some of the specific topics will take a while to appear.  However, I shall start things off with a more general post about the fly in.  Held at Mears Field in the interestingly names town of Concrete, it is a popular gathering of planes from around the region.  There is a single runway running east/west in the valley and the planes park up on either side of it.  You are able to walk across the runway at a couple of locations (or further away from them if you want to avoid the air cadets) so just keep you head on a swivel.  The wind seems to change midway through the day, so arrivals were from the west in the morning and the east in the afternoon.

We set up at a spot near the threshold on the eastern end of the field and it provides a good location to watch the landings and the takeoff rolls.  Sometimes, it is easy to forget that you can walk around, and you find you have stayed in one place for ages getting similar shots.  I did try and mix it up from time to time but it was rather sunny and warm and the shade under the wing of a 170 was pretty appealing.

Since I was shooting a lot of light aircraft, I decided to try and make the shots more interesting by keeping the shutter speed low to emphasize speed.  The downside the this is that you are very close to the runway so the parallax effect is quite pronounced.  You can also just miss a ton of shots but why not have some fun.  Few of them are ones you can’t afford to miss.  It does mean a sharp nose is probably combined with a blurry fin.  This will really annoy some viewers and others will never notice.  Since I am shooting for me, I’m the only one that has to care!

More to come of some specific planes and events from the day out with a regular crew of aviation loons.

Tunnel Of Rebar

I was down on our project site having a look at the progress that is being made.  Most of the large columns for the elevated sections have already been built but one more needs to be done later than the others because it goes where a temporary road had been placed.  They are now getting to it and the rebar has been put together that will go inside the column to reinforce the concrete as it is poured and sets.  Looking through the tunnel of this rebar as it sat on the ground awaiting the pour, I loved the pattern that it formed.

Never Seen This Before And I Want One!

I was on one of the construction sites for the Sound Transit expansion to Federal Way.  As I walked around the parking garage that was under construction, I came across a piece of equipment I had not seen before.  I have seen machines for working the surface of concrete before but this one has two rotating elements under a seat.  The operator rides on the machine.  It looks like some kids version of a jet pack.

The better news was that a second one was in use on the upper levels of the parking structure.  When I got up the tower crane, I was able to shoot a little video of it in use.  It is a curious looking piece of machinery and, having never seen it before, seeing it in use really made me smile.

These are Concrete – Honest

Driving up to the summit of Mount Constitution, the road twists and turns a great deal.  Some of the curves have a steep drop off which will not end well if your vehicle were to leave the paved surface.  Consequently, there are plenty of concrete posts along the edge of the road to try and stop you going too far wrong.  However, it is so shady and damp within the woods the cover the side of the mountain, these posts get no light and have become home for moss.  It looks so thick that you wonder whether the car would even be scratched it you hit one!

1930s Architecture at Its Best?

There was a building at the bottom of the dam at Grand Coulee that was part of the dam infrastructure.  Looking down on this building, it seemed so in keeping with a certain generation of architecture.  Concrete buildings were in vogue at that time and they were very functional and lacking in much in the way of aesthetics.  Given that this was part of the work generation program of the Great Depression, maybe the focus was on function rather than form.  I wonder what someone would do with such a requirement if they were commissioned to design such a building today.

Space Age Visitor Center

There is a visitor center for the Grand Coulee dam.  Sadly, as with a lot of similar things, it was closed while I was there due to the virus.  While I couldn’t go in, I was rather taken with the structure itself.  I’m not sure when it was built but it has a bit of a 70s space age feel about it.  When in the park lower down the hill, it looks a little like a flying saucer has landed above you.  I bet it looks interesting when lit up at night.

Snow Shed Remains

Our hike on the Iron Goat Trail was more than just exercise.  It proved to be quite an educational experience.  There were many relics of the old railroad and a lot of signs telling the tale of how the railroad was built and why it was abandoned later.  The Cascades get a lot of snow and in the early 20th century, the snow depths in winter were a lot more than they are now.  It was not uncommon to get 15-20 feet of snow along this part of the alignment in those days.

This snow caused trouble with avalanches as a result of the amount of trees that had been cut for timber when building the railway.  Landslides were also a problem in other seasons.  To protect from the snow, sheds were built over the track at places most vulnerable to avalanche.  This practice is continued to this day in the mountainous areas of US railroads.

These snow sheds had a reinforced concrete wall on the uphill side.  A timber structure was then built out over the track to provide cover with concrete bases for the supporting timbers on the downhill side of the structure.  Most of the timbers have either been removed for reuse or have decayed after a century up on the mountainside.  The concrete walls are still in reasonable shape.  Some spalling of the concrete has occurred but otherwise they look solid.  A lot of plant life has grown over them and they do have water cascading over the top in many places.  The bases for the timber supports are still visible in many places.

There are many of these sections along the trail.  The first one you come across is quite a surprise but, after you have seen a few of them, they start to be normal when you get to another section.  They are pretty large structures though.

Foundations for a Tall Building

I have already posted a couple of times about the construction next to our old apartment in Chicago.  The demolition of the Sun Times building was here and the removal and replacement of Wabash Avenue was here.  This was all associated with the construction of the new tower.  Since the plot on which this tower was going to be built was pretty small, it couldn’t be a traditional steel frame skyscraper.  The provide the stiffness needed for such a slender tower, it had to be constructed of concrete.

This required a substantial foundation.  First was the need to clear out the old foundations.  The Sun Times building had been constructed on top of a ton of piles that were timber poles driven in to the ground.  These all had to come out before anything else could be done.  Tons of them would be lying around at various times as they were pulled out prior to being taken away.

Next was the need to drill down for the new piles.  I seem to recall that they went down about 130 feet but my memory may be off on that.  Some of the piles were really wide while others were slightly narrower.  Larger drills would take out the earth and then steels cylinders would be inserted in to the whole.  Rebar reinforcements would be inserted before the concrete could be poured in to make the final pile.  This process was repeated across the site over a course of months.

All of this was the precursor to the main foundation.  The building was built on top of a concrete raft.  This sat on top of all of the piles.  It was a single pour.  The whole pour took about 48 hours.  A steady stream of trucks brought the concrete in from a mixing plant a couple of miles away.  The mix was a special high strength one and each truck was tested as it arrived.  Pouring such a volume of concrete continuously required great care because the material generates heat as it sets and there was constant monitoring to ensure that the overall temperature remained within range.  Once they started, they couldn’t stop.

The whole thing apparently went to plan and the result was a large concrete base on which the rest of the construction effort would build.  After months of preparation, finally it was time for things to start going up again.

R44 Pilot Showing Off for the Camera

I was wandering along the runway at Concrete towards the end of the day during the fly in.  A Robinson R44 had been doing pleasure flights throughout the day and was landing well up the field from where I spent a lot of my time.  I had photographed it as it came over a couple of times but soon lost interest.  However, as I wandered along, I happened to be near his landing spot when he came back from another trip.  I was far better placed to get a shot or two so I did.  However, he spotted me and, instead of following his normal approach routine, he brought the helicopter to a hover in front of me facing at me as they all looked at me while I looked at them.  As long as I kept shooting, he didn’t go anywhere so eventually I just lowered the camera and waved.  At that point he turned around and landed.