[TR] Pine Street Stub Tunnel- East Stairs 4/7/2006

[Weekend_Climberz]

Climb: Pine Street Stub Tunnel-East Stairs

 

Date of Climb: 4/7/2006

 

Trip Report:

A late email for a little tour that I signed up for a while back came to me this morning and read:

 

“Sorry for the late notice, but I am taking a group on a tour of Pine Street Tunnel today at 11:30-1 pm. If you can make the tour, please RSVP ASAP, so I can fill the spot if you are unavailable. All need boots, hardhats, eye protection if you don't wear glasses, safety vest, and ear plugs. All are available on the 16th floor except boots. You must be comfortable climbing a three story construction staircase”

 

After finding out that tennis shoes were less than sufficient footwear for insurance purposes, a quick tour of the equipment locker in the hub revealed all the needed equipment required. A pair of size 13 goulashes worked as footwear, though it was kind of odd walking downtown with them on. I whipped on my borrowed eyewear, safety vest, and hardhat, then signed in to the job site inside of the construction management building located in the hotel across from the Paramount.

 

Being that it was the first time I had ever been on a construction site (legitimately) it was very intriguing to see all the rebar sticking in all different directions. The west end of the tunnel floor, just below (80 feet) the front of the Paramount, had already been poured, but the walls were still being put together.

 

We made our way down a narrow, spiraling construction staircase to the recently poured 6-foot concrete floor slab. Before us was where the North End tunnel will start (when they decided on a design) and to the right, a utility and ventilation shaft that will serve this end of the new tunnel. Above us, 3-foot diameter steel piping, gouged lengthwise for about 5 feet on either side to accept metal plates that are welded to the shoring walls, supported the walls in three distinct layers.

 

As we walked east, our tour guide explained how they had to support all the utilities that were zigzagging underneath Pine Street. You could see where they removed all the concrete surrounding the ducts and piping yet they left the concrete they were sitting on. It was unusual to see the underside of what appeared to be suspended sidewalks, where the original utilities are still sitting. These apparently will not be moved, but reburied once they complete the “cover” phase of this “cut and cover” project.

 

On the far East end, where the existing tunnel and the new tunnel meet, is where a majority of the work is being down. This is directly underneath the concrete panels that make up Pine Street between 8th and 7th. Here the rebar cage that will soon become another 6-foot concrete slab is still being built and the smell of welding torches was very strong. I could not help but joke, as we talked with a worker about when they would be pouring more concrete.

 

“They are supposed to do it at noon,” he replied.

 

It was nearly one o’clock, and they only action that could be seen was six workers standing around, seemingly waiting for something to happen from above. We stood there for about fifteen minutes, waiting to see if they were actually going to start the concrete flowing but they never did. The old adage of one person digging with four people standing around make sure he is digging in the right place came to mind.

 

All the different problems that had to be engineered for this connecting tunnel all seemed immensely complex for my non-engineering mind. Though actually seeing it and being able to roam around a little bit really put such a huge project ($30 million) into perspective. Digging a hole underneath moving traffic while trying to maintain a quarter inch variance and monitoring the movement of some of the historic buildings nearby is way over my head.

 

We made our way up another construction staircase to street level and signed ourselves out of the job site. Across the street stood another one of our projects on 8th and Olive, the new 40-story high-rise residential plaza. I cannot wait to take a tour of the high steel on this one, but that will be for another trip report.

 

Gear Notes:

Hard Hat, Orange Safety Vest, Eye Protection, Boots, and Ear Plugs (optional)

 

Approach Notes:

Steeps stairs up and down.