Devon Energy Center

[metro]

Yes it's realistic; Trump Tower in Chicago went up one floor per day.

[westsidesooner]

THX Metro...thats great news. At my age I never know how long I'll be around, so the quicker this goes up the better. lol. From the construction cam it looks like the pit is coming along pretty quickly and almost done....

Are the large yellow pieces of equipment in the pit the driiling machines for the caissons?

[Urbanized]

Kimker points across the street to the Myriad Gardens lake to explain the other challenge overcome by engineers in planning for the tower. Contractors involved with any significant downtown project know that the central business district was originally part of the Oklahoma River bed — and if one digs deep enough, they’ll still hit water.

"If you walk across the street and look at the lake, you can see exactly where the water level would be,” Kimker said. "We would see 5,000 gallons of water coming into the site if it’s not repaired. But it will be cut down to 1,500 gallons an hour with a disposal well and shoring.”

Gee, whaddya know... ...I was right! Good grief!

[OKC@heart]

Over the past several days they have been pouring the main piers for the Round portion of the tower. That is why the large very long steel reinforcing cages into the holes and the concrete pumping truck that has been there well into the night pouring. It may not look like much but it is very significant and indicates that very soon the cured sub grade structure will be able to support above grade structure.

If anyone can get by there with a camera I would love to see shots of the area where they are pouring. You will notice that it is in the circular form of the main columns of the building as indicated in the Floor Plan. Also we are just about to the point where we will not be able to see anymore action on the Parking garage, so at some point in the not too distant future it would be nice to turn the camera back to the left so we can see more of what is transpiring on the foundation work of the tower.

Thanks again to all who have been providing great shots of the site. It is tremendously helpful and exciting to be a part of!

[okcmomentum]

After reading heart's post, I figured today would be the last day of the week I would even want to risk running over there so I did. Here's the activity I saw:

Pouring of the piers as indicated










Activity on the west end








Section of the garage going up

[OKC@heart]

A huge thanks to OKCmomentum for the photos! Talk about responsiveness! So much is going on the site at once it is hard to comprehend the coordination effort that goes on behind the scenes to make it come together like it is. I can tell you from witnessing several large projects through design and then through construction, that you do not get the kind of quality and speed that is taking place here in OKC on this site very often. The Contractors and developers are quality!

Try to stay warm up there! Yeah I heard that you guys are going to have polar bears who have been disoriented by all of the frigid weather roaming the streets before long. Keep your faucets running overnight the next few days, avoid exploding water pipes at all cost folks.

[ourulz2000]

A huge thanks to OKCmomentum for the photos! Talk about responsiveness! So much is going on the site at once it is hard to comprehend the coordination effort that goes on behind the scenes to make it come together like it is. I can tell you from witnessing several large projects through design and then through construction, that you do not get the kind of quality and speed that is taking place here in OKC on this site very often. The Contractors and developers are quality!

Try to stay warm up there! Yeah I heard that you guys are going to have polar bears who have been disoriented by all of the frigid weather roaming the streets before long. Keep your faucets running overnight the next few days, avoid exploding water pipes at all cost folks.

At what point does construction stop when it gets too cold?

[OKC@heart]

At what point does construction stop when it gets too cold?

Where I have had projects done it has not ever been an issue. But it is usually a ballance of what is construed as taking too much risk for the workers on the site, and of course a finacial decision. If the workers are all in heated cabs that is one thing but when it gets into the teens and single digits the guys who are working on the ground outside of the machinery will end up spending a large amount of time in a truck to get warm. So it becomes an issue of, do you just send them home and avoid hypothermia and frostbite issues as well as paying for the labor that ends up not accomplishing much becuase of the extreme cold, or do you just accept it and send them home to play it safe.

Its judgement call, however I will be suprised if we see much action on the site over the next couple of days. At least until the wind dies down. For what its worth.

[DelCamino]

Construction Pics - Jan 6, 2010:

[gen70]

Nice pics, Thanks.

[Lauri101]

great pictures both - thanks!

I'll be back at the office next week and will try and remember camera. I need to find a place to post pictures so I don't have to bug Pete to post - any suggestions for free and relatively easy sites?

[hipsterdoofus]

great pictures both - thanks!

I'll be back at the office next week and will try and remember camera. I need to find a place to post pictures so I don't have to bug Pete to post - any suggestions for free and relatively easy sites?

Photobucket - or for your higher resolution stuff just get a free flickr account.

[Urbanized]

Pool of water: still there.

[DelCamino]

great pictures both - thanks!

I'll be back at the office next week and will try and remember camera. I need to find a place to post pictures so I don't have to bug Pete to post - any suggestions for free and relatively easy sites?

Thanks.

It's really difficult to post pics here. If it were, I can promise you'd I wouldn't be doing it. lol. For mine, I upload the pics to Photobucket, like Hipster mentioned, then from there, uploaded the pics here.

PM me if you want and I'll go over details on how it's done.

[DelCamino]

Pool of water: still there.

Yes, some is still there, but not nearly as much as before. And the location of the water looks to be a little bit east of where it was before (See post #321, 1st pic).

[Urbanized]

There's no way to know how much water there is compared to last time. The hole has moved and changed size. The question is: how much water surface area is exposed at the same elevation? It's really pointless to argue. Devon's Klay Kimker confirmed in Steve's Jan 3 article that the natural water table level is visible across the street at the Myriad Botanical gardens. It will be at the same elevation in the Devon site if you dig deep enough. It would hold true whether you have a hole 3' in diameter or 30' in diameter.

Kimker points across the street to the Myriad Gardens lake to explain the other challenge overcome by engineers in planning for the tower. Contractors involved with any significant downtown project know that the central business district was originally part of the Oklahoma River bed — and if one digs deep enough, they’ll still hit water.

"If you walk across the street and look at the lake, you can see exactly where the water level would be,” Kimker said. "We would see 5,000 gallons of water coming into the site if it’s not repaired. But it will be cut down to 1,500 gallons an hour with a disposal well and shoring.”

Kalley said the shoring will isolate the site so that while water doesn’t gush into the tower’s foundation, the water level on surrounding properties will be maintained as they are today.

I'm not sure what there is to argue about at this point.

[DelCamino]

??

Who's arguing? Don't know why or where you got that. My post was intended as general conversation and nothing more.

[Urbanized]

You probably missed the earlier post where someone ripped me for suggesting the water must be approximately where the natural water table is.

[Steve]

Here, redirect all your anger at me Urbanized. I'm here for you.

[Urbanized]

Happily! Where to begin, where to begin...

[jbrown84]

Kind of cool to think that the Myriad Gardens lake is technically a natural lake then.

[gen70]

Kind of cool to think that the Myriad Gardens lake is technically a natural lake then.

Almost lol!

[OKCisOK4me]

Yes, some is still there, but not nearly as much as before. And the location of the water looks to be a little bit east of where it was before (See post #321, 1st pic).

It's kinda cool to line those pics up in separate tabs and click back and forth between them picking out the differences between the two pics! I did it for five minutes or so before I finally got bored, lol.

[OKC@heart]

Over the past few days while it has been so ridiculously cold they have not been installing the
precast however I have noticed a significant increase in excavation taking place where the base of the main tower will be. That is significant because that means that we are getting closer to seeing them tie the steel for the mat foundation that sits atop and integrates with the piers that they have been pouring over the last couple of weeks. Exciting stuff!

[WWW]

Thanks.

It's really difficult to post pics here. If it were, I can promise you'd I wouldn't be doing it. lol. For mine, I upload the pics to Photobucket, like Hipster mentioned, then from there, uploaded the pics here.

PM me if you want and I'll go over details on how it's done.

DelCamino, which building are you taking these pictures from?