The Building Bulletin: November 2022

The building is really taking shape. We are almost finished creating the basement walls, and steel structures should be going up by the end of December. The focus this month has been the weather. The cold is not conducive to working with concrete. In cold weather, the water inside the concrete mixture can freeze, which causes structural damage. After the pour, the crew covered the new concrete with tarps and snaked hoses between the tarp and the fresh concrete. A machine next to the big hole heats a glycol solution and pumps it through the hoses. The glycol recirculates, keeping the new concrete warm. We are expecting that the basement slab will be poured the week after Thanksgiving despite the colder weather.

There are weather delay days built into the construction schedule. The number of days is determined for a specific area based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the seasons during which construction is planned. We have used 3 days so far: two of them on November 17 and 18 due to the snow. Slippery conditions make it unsafe for the crew to work outside on the site. Some inside work can be done, but the subcontractors (such as the concrete workers) take the day off.


We have been asked recently if sustainability was considered in the design of the new sanctuary. The answer is a resounding yes!
Many of you weren’t around when we went through our design process, and some of us that were don’t remember that far back. It does seem like a long time ago. Energy efficiency, the use of sustainable materials, and the reuse and recycling of materials were primary objectives when choosing our partners, Ewers Architecture and Pinkard Construction.   

We also are participating in the City of Fort Collins Integrated Design Assistance program (IDAP). This program provides incentives for design and construction as well as technical advice and performance incentives based on energy savings. For more information on this program see https://www.fcgov.com/utilities/business/improve-efficiency/rebates-incentives/integrated-design-assistance.  

And finally, the light in the parking lot is back!

In partnership and with excitement,

The Building Expansion Team
Chris Bettlach, Jerry Hanley, Peg MacMorris, and Margaret Cottam

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