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Last month I went on an eight-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. Even though you're on vacation you can't stop yourself from looking at the construction projects that are being built, from multi-story hotels to single family houses. A lot of them are made out of concrete. The hotels were interesting because of some of the construction practices. I didn't get to see all the process for making concrete but the batch plant looked modern enough. I rented a Jeep and drove into the Sierra Madre Mountains to look at some of the small villages and ran onto a pit where they were getting the sand for the concrete. It came from a big dry river wash. They said, "good sand, no salt." They scooped it up and into the truck. No screening or washing. I guess when it rains the sand is washed and the trucks quit until the rain stops. The wash was about 300 yards wide. They said the water gets six to eight feet deep. I don't know where they get the gravel. I looked at a bag of "cementos." It was Portland cement but I couldn't read who made it. (No comprende.)
I saw a hotel under construction that had about 50 workers on the day that I was there. Some of them were forming up the 5th floor. Some of the shoring looked like 4x4s and some looked like old trees, and not very straight ones either. This project must have been managed by one of the larger contractors because everyone had a hard hat on. Too bad none of the floors had a handrail around them. I could see one of the workers hanging over the side of the build hammering on something and hanging on by wrapping his leg around a column.
I took a bus to see some of the sites in Mazatlan. We stopped at a "brick factory." The crew consisted of two men, one who was quite old. They had two houses that looked like my old shed. (They were made out of brick, no dah!) The younger one would take a wheelbarrow down to the pond and stomp around in his bare feet until enough mud was made to fill the wheelbarrow. Then he would scoop up the mud with his hands into the wheelbarrow, wheel it over to the flat dirt, put down the four brick mold and throw the mud in to the mold with his hands, flatten it out and repeat the process until he had a thousand bricks made. He did this every day. The bricks dry for seven days, then they stack them over some wood and fire them for 24 hours. By the way, the best brick have straw put in them, the good brick have wood shavings put in them, the cheap brick didn't have anything but mud in them. (These were the cheap brick.)
I tell you the brick story to introduce the housing that was available for the construction workers in town. The hometown workers had dirt streets and one to two room brick houses. The Columbians had plywood and tin. Those were the good ones.
We stopped at a furniture factory. The factory consisted of five employees, a table saw, a band saw, a planner, and a lathe. The equipment had no blade guards and was older then me. Yes that's pretty old, and yes all the employees had all their fingers. They made some pretty nice things.
Before I run out of room, I wanted to tell you about this little town we went to that's only accessible by boat. The streets were all concrete with cobblestone embedded in them. They were not wide enough for a car. I don't think even one of those clown cars would fit. I saw three 4-wheelers parked along side the road; they must use them for cars. The little town is built on the side of a mountain. Most of the homes were about the size of my family room. Some of them were two floors. They would pour concrete columns about eight inches square and connected them with concrete beams of the same size. Rebar was a little smaller then #3 bar. Then they would shore the upper floor with some not so straight tree branches and pour a floor on them. Cold joints were ok. I think most of the work was done with 5 gallon buckets.
Nonetheless concrete is still one of the most versatile and used building materials around. It can be greatly abused and still last as long as anything else.
Keep on cruising and Happy Saint Patrick's Day.
Ray Nelson |
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2007-2008 Board of Directors Elections It is time to elect a new Board of Directors. The election results will be announced at the Awards Banquet on March 22.
Ballots can be obtained here.
Please cast your ballot via email, fax or mail.
Officers
Chapter President Todd Laker
Vice President Chris Barker
Treasurer Mark Sweat
Committee Chairs
Student Activities Paul Tikalsky
Education Jerry Hall
Golf Doug Bedingfield
The following individuals will continue to fill their terms as follows:
Past President Ray Nelson
Membership Ben Blankenship
Certification Greg Anderson
Luncheon Jim Cavey |
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Membership The ACI Intermountain Chapter will be offering several options for membership. As well as individual membership, corporate memberships will also be offered. The corporate membership will be available in two options: Gold and Silver.
If you would like more information about membership, please check the website or contact Ben Blankenship, Membership Chair, 801-263-3011 or Kristin Beckstead, 801-250-3444. |
