Infrastructure Site Visit: Concrete Sidewalk Pour

          North Main Street in Blacksburg, VA is currently seeing some major roadway changes as many people in the area may know.  I am unaware what exactly is being done to change the roadway layout but I got a chance the other day to observe a group of workers pour a concrete sidewalk as I waited at the Exxon station.  The first thing I noticed was that the curb was not all formed and poured at the same time with expansion joints being added later, but instead they it was poured in multiple different sections.  One reason for this is because it is more efficient to use the same forms for multiple pours.  It is also a lot easier to shut down only small sections of the roadway to complete a pour rather then large areas and attempt to pour everything at once.

Here is a photo of the forms used for the curbs.  Rebar is placed along the

sides of the forms to act as bracing.

          On site besides the concrete truck seen in the photo above was a small pump truck.  The pump truck was very necessary for this pour because it was necessary to keep the road way open during the pour and if the concrete truck had to back into the pour area to deliver the concrete, traffic would have been obstructed. By getting a pump truck, the concrete truck was able to pull up parallel to the pour area and deliver the concrete.

         This is factor I feel many people may not consider at first glance when considering the cost in pouring this sidewalk but is very important to the overall estimate.

         I feel one way to ensure that you do not run into problems like the potential one above where the concrete truck could have blocked traffic, would be to visit the job site prior to the day of completing the job or even looking at a site map, and walking through the steps of the pour in your head, visualizing what equipment will be needed for each and every task.