Happy Day in the Rain

Even though it was raining, I went to the site this afternoon to check on the crane.  It's huge, and it was slowly moving back and forth, although I couldn't see any people or purpose.

I'm not familiar with cranes, but I did observe that the circular internal parts of the tower are ladders.  I'm already impressed.

Via the construction cam, I watched men work all weekend with this orange drilling machine at the northeast corner of the tabernacle.  The weather was dry and clear, but the water was there anyway.  Obviously it's raining right now, but up is not the source of the wet.  

However, this afternoon the orange machine was not at the northwest corner.  It was at the south entrance to the basement.  At first I thought more drilling was going to happen.

Then I saw Mr. Track Hoe pull the machine up and out of the basement.  This was not a slow process.  In fact, things moved so fast that this was the only picture I was able to get.  It was at that moment that I realized the drilling in the northeast corner was finished.

I have no idea what they did, but here's what that northeast corner looks like now.

I'm guessing it was an important but difficult project, and I'll tell you why.  As these men loaded a generator into the front of Junior Front-end Loader, one of them did a happy dance.  They were clearly pleased.

And then Junior raced out of the basement as though he had stolen someone's lunch money.

After Mr. Track Hoe released the orange machine, he went back to digging.  His work today seems to be enlarging the hole in which the tabernacle sits.  You might be wondering about the pool on the left of this picture.  I am, too.

And he just kept digging; I hope he's being supervised.  But it did make it easier for me to see into the basement, and while not whining about the weather (we still need the moisture), it was a little challenging today, and the larger opening helped.

I could hear this hydraulic jack-hammer working away, but it took me awhile to get a picture of him.  Notice the sand, or maybe it's dirt, which has been moved onto the basement slab.  The jack-hammer appears to be working in places without the sand.

There are several piles of broken cement.  The one in the center is obvious.

This pile is on the west side.  The jack-hammer was noisily working away on the east side as I left.

Mysterious work is still ongoing in the upper north lot. 

I zoomed in to see if I could figure out what these holes are.  Seeing them better doesn't help.

These green lengths of tubing and metal were being assembled on the south lot.  I think they are part of the upper north lot work.  They show up earlier in the picture taken by the construction cam, but I don't think they are related to the work the orange machine was doing.

Also in the north lot is this red bridge, neatly place over a stream.  I have no explanation, especially since there's a perfectly good red ladder which could facilitate crossing that stream. 

Tandem trailers were everywhere at the site. 

I took this picture from the west side, near a very busy Post Office parking lot.  Daddy Track Hoe was busy the entire time I was there filling trailers with dirt from a new hole.

I took this picture of the west face with the crane above it.  I have to confess that I'm very excited about the next stage of work.

The west lot was a veritable parade of dump trucks which are diligently removing tons of dirt from the former site of the NuSkin parking garage.

Today the tandem trailers were color coordinated -- yellow on the west side, and white in the south lot. 

Big Wow! Big Crane!

I was thrilled and surprised when I arrived at the temple site today --  there are, not one, but two cranes!

The white crane is on the base we watched being built on the north lot.  The black crane is facilitating that effort.  I used my handy-dandy camera to see how the workers were doing.

At first I thought there were two men, but my camera found three.

Later I found a fourth in this box.

I love the name of the company!

University Avenue was blocked off near the tabernacle for obvious reasons.

Another part of the crane was in the north lot.  I hung around for an hour hoping to see these parts raised, but finally I had to leave.

I'm hoping Mr. Crane is glad for the help and not feeling sad and neglected.

Since the street was blocked, I had a harder time spying into the basement.

A thin layer of dirt was being spread in the northwest corner.

This view from the southwest shows a small front-end loader at work.

Mr. Track Hoe was bringing in scoops of dirt from this pile in the south lot.

If you look carefully in the lower right-hand corner of the photo, you can see a dirt pile.

I tried to zoom in, but my camera was hanging over the fence and kind of guessing where to aim.

I walked south along the tabernacle property.  Dirt is being removed.  That's about all I can say, and I probably didn't need to say that.

These piles of wood are new.   My guesses are useless.  We'll hopefully know what this is for soon.

There's a small pile of gravel in the southeast corner.  Look at the stone blocks behind the woman walking in the upper right-hand corner.

I think these were found during the excavation of the south lot.  I'd love to know more.

I'm still very curious about the action in the north lot.  This view is from the construction camera on the NuSkin building.  I can see the grout barrier on the north and west sides.  The truck from Bigge Tower Crane is making an appearance on the left side of this picture.  I don't think the standing water is from rain.  I can't even guess.

I zoomed in to get a better look.  Be careful -- the construction camera is addicting.  

This view of the north lot is from the southeast. 

This view of the north lot is from the southwest.  I believe the white pipe with the black top is a well.  The green machine is a pump.  It used to be next to the three pools on the south just two weeks ago.

And here is Mr. Red Ladder, still functioning as the north lot exit. 

I zoomed in to see if his footings were still precarious; maybe precarious is in the eye of the beholder.  I can see a sledgehammer and perhaps a few picks indicating some hard work is going on.

There is still a lot of action in the west lot where the NuSkin garage used to be. Lots of these tandem trucks were going in and out as they excavated the west lot.

I'm starting to like these trucks a lot.  Sometimes they honk and their drivers wave -- always a thrill!

There were a lot of trucks to wave at today.

Daddy Track Hoe was working hard and didn't notice me at all.

I walked along Second West on my way back to my car which was parked on Center Street.  There is actually a lot of work, a lot of workmen, and a lot of noise.  And don't forget about the three guys hanging up there in the left hand corner.

I counted five cranes between the two construction projects.

I am enjoying the construction, but you can see that this part of downtown will be very beautiful when it's completed.

 I feel a need to clear something up. A source I consider to be extremely reliable told me that Jacobsen wants to make it safe and easy for people to watch the work.  However, today there is a large wall on the west side.  This barrier was not placed at the request of Jacobsen, but by the Post Office.  It didn't appear to be stopping anyone from looking, though.  Once again, I was not the only onlooker today on the west or the east sides.

And one more thing:  spring has officially arrived in Provo!