DenverInfill Blog

As you may have seen in Jeffery Leib’s article in Monday’s Denver Post, work on the bus box has been suspended while a beefier dewatering filtration system is installed and approved by the state.  The green tanks in the photo below contain the original charcoal filters that have been prone to clogging due to high levels of iron.  The new blue and yellow filtration units are intended to remedy the situation.

In the meantime,  ground water is seeping into the bus box hole such that nearly the entire floor is now under water, as you can see in the photo below.

Once the ground water situation is resolved, work can begin on the concrete floor called a mud slab, and digging inside the three sheet pile holes will begin.  Those holes are for plumbing vaults which will be ten feet deeper than the current floor of the bus box hole.  A pit for the bus terminal elevator will be dug in the same vicinity but will be only four feet deep and will not require sheet pile.

The stone roadway seen on the right in the photo above is the pathway for the crane that is pictured in Update #17.  The crane will move along the road as it sets in place the structural parts of the bus box.  The structural material staging area is up and to the right of the stone roadway.

There is also progress on the light rail system.  Work has begun on foundations for the overhead catenary system (the power delivery system for the light rail) along the future light rail tracks beside the consolidated main line tracks.  Also, workers have started backfilling between the two new light rail retaining walls.  Eventually, the surface will be raised to the top of the retaining walls before the new tracks can be installed.  The relocated light rail station is expected to be completed and in service by the spring or summer of 2011.

There is also  progress to report at the temporary Amtrak terminal at Wewatta and 21st streets.  Interior walls are being framed and electrical work is underway.  Part of the interior concrete floor had to be removed for placement of new utilities.  That work has been completed.  An insulated water line will be built over 20th Street to supply water to the area near the temporary Amtrak platform.  The water is needed to clean the trains and replenish potable water in passenger cars.  The need for water at the platform is yet another item that falls into the category of, “I never would have thought of that.”

In Update #18, I mentioned the application of a coating on the two mountains of dirt.  It has proved to be very effective.  There is no evidence  of erosion after last weekend’s rain.

I uploaded 12 new photos to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com including the the two photos in this post.

Thank you to Hunter Syndor of Kiewit for providing the information in today’s blog.

Remember the first walking tour is this Thursday.

Walking tours of the Union Station project are about to become a reality. At 4:30pm on the third Thursday of June, July, August and September, you can participate in the tour by showing up at the front of Union Station on Wynkoop Street. The first tour (June 17) will start with a presentation by Union Station Neighborhood Company before moving to the Millennium Bridge for an overview of the project by Hunter Sydnor of Kiewit Corporation. This is a perfect opportunity to learn about the project directly from the experts and to ask those unanswered questions.

(Note: I will be traveling for much of June so my updates will be based on my presence rather than Union Station construction activity.)

If you take a close look at the photo below, you can see several interesting things:

• Workers atop the dirt pile are coating it with a material that will prevent erosion over the next many months while that dirt sits exposed to the elements.
• The current phase of excavating the bus box hole appears to be getting very close to completion.
• A stone roadway has been built into the bus box.  Heavy traffic must be expected soon.
• The crane boom was hoisted this afternoon for the first time.  As you try to gauge the height of it, be aware that I took the photo from about 90 feet off the ground.

Underground utility work has been underway constantly in various parts of the project.  For once, I was able to get a good shot of conduit being placed near the intersection of 18th Street and the Consolidated Main Line tracks.

One more thing.  Is this crane actually trying to lift the Qwest building?

I’ve uploaded 17 more photos, including two that I took late last week, to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.

On Monday, the truck pictured below arrived with a load of forms for concrete.  I believe the construction industry refers to it as “forming work.”  I’ve waited to discuss it in hopes of seeing exactly where it will be used, but the load remains staged on the edge of the bus box hole.  Perhaps, the forms will be used inside the utility boxes that are still being created with the sheet pile.  (See Update #16).

Here is a closer view of the crane that was delivered on May 20.  The boom that appears to be about 140 feet long has been assembled on the ground and attached to the crane.  But it has not yet been hoisted into the air.

On Wednesday, I uploaded another 14 photos to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.  Several shots show the huge second dirt pile that is rapidly growing.  The current phase of digging appears to be nearing completion.

There are three recent events to talk about today. First, the conveyor system was shut down last Friday (May 14). Evidently, the space allocated for dirt on the northeast side of the bus box hole reached its capacity. It took several days to reassemble the conveyor at a new location closer to Wewatta Street. On Wednesday, I took this photo of the beginning of another pile of dirt that is rapidly growing on the parking lot at the intersection of Wewatta and 16th streets.

Second, long angular pieces of  metal (sheet pile) are being driven into the bottom and near the northwest end of the bus box hole.  The following photo shows the sheet pile forming a box that will hold back dirt and ground water from an eventual hole that will house utilities under the floor of the  bus box.

Third, a new piece of gear showed up at the project site yesterday afternoon.  It appears to be a crane and is being assembled on site probably because it is too large to be transported on public roads.   I took the following photo showing a couple of workers walking nearby to provide a sense of scale.  I’m looking forward to seeing this new toy in action.

Also notice the ground under the new crane in the last photo.   Over the past two days, Kiewit resurfaced a most of the northwest side of the project area.  They trucked in what appears to be crushed limestone, smoothed it out with a grader, and packed it with a roller.   I assume it is time for a cleaner, more stable surface on which to work.

I uploaded 16 more photos to JobSiteVistor.com this week.  Please check them out.

I’ve wondered how the Kiewit workers know when to stop digging. And, how to be sure that the bottom of this four acre hole is flat such that one part of the bus box hole isn’t 25 feet deep when another part that looks to be the same depth, but is only 24 feet deep. I wondered about these things until I saw this …

And this …

The man in the first photo recently walked around the bottom of the bus box hole for 30 minutes or so, stopped every few feet, planted the Frisbee-topped stick on the ground, and appeared to take a reading of some sort. Then I noticed identical looking Frisbees mounted on each side the bulldozer blade, “Hmm, I think I’m on to something.”

You guessed it. Of course, the Frisbees are GPS units that measure elevation. The bulldozer operator knows at all times how deep the hole is. Now I wonder how they did these things way back in the old days, like ten years ago.

Please see our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com for photos that are added multiple times a week.

Hunter Sydnor of Kiewit was kind enough to give me a tour around the area that will become Amtrak’s temporary terminal at Wewatta and 21st streets. This blog will provide new information about that part of the Union Station project and correct an error in Update #11.

Kiewit will build a new 700 foot passenger platform along a new set of tracks across Wewatta Street from the temporary terminal.  They will also move part of the existing overhead structure from behind Union Station to the new platform.  The photo below was taken from Park Avenue looking toward Union Station.  It shows foundation work in preparation for the new passenger platform.  The elevated street on the right is Wewatta.

Renovation of the temporary terminal building, a photo of which is in Update #11, is already underway by DRG Construction, a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise.  The terminal will be divided approximately 50/50 between a passenger waiting area and Amtrak offices.  New facilities will be installed including restrooms, waiting area, tickets counter, etc.  A passenger parking lot will be built between the Metro apartment building and 20th Street, under the elevated HOA ramp.

I’ll try to give a sense for how it all fits together.  Amtrak passengers will drive to the temporary terminal by turning onto Chestnut Street from 20th Street and enter the parking lot from either Chestnut Street or Delgany Street. They will enter the building from 21st Street, under another section of the relocated overhead structure from behind Union Station, and through what is now an overhead door.  The door will be sliding glass, and the existing loading dock will be removed.  When it’s time to board the train, passengers will exit through the same door to the intersection of 21st and Wewatta where they will cross Wewatta to the new platform.  A new pedestrian traffic light will be installed where passengers will cross at grade level, as opposed to an overhead walkway that I mentioned in Update #11.  Amtrak employees will move passenger baggage across 21st Street and under the elevated portion of Wewatta to the train.

The temporary Amtrak terminal and platform are expected to be operational in the fall of this year.

Since posting the blog on Monday, I have added 20 more photos to our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.