One of the things that has worked out really well for ManhattanWest was my decision to locate our corporate offices adjacent to the construction site. This makes it easy for my construction team and myself to walk over a couple of times a day (and sometimes more frequently) to keep an eye on construction, discuss design issues with our general contractor and subcontractor, and keep things moving forward briskly.
Lately, the focus has been on concrete and plumbing. The concrete is being poured for the parking levels and to create the base for the residential floors. Before the concrete can go in, though, the underground plumbing lines need to be put in. This is about as deep as we go into the earth. The most interesting moments are when we hit pockets of mineral-hard "caliche", a sort of rock formation common to Las Vegas. The good news is that caliche is a great bedrock upon which to build. The bad news is that trying to dig a trench through pure rock is not as easy as digging it through desert sand!
Our construction team has brought in special equipment to handle the caliche. They take standard-issue loaders and attach a device called a ram-hoe. It's like a really really big jackhammer. And sometimes, when there's enough room, they wheel in the big mama: a Trencher. This big beast can grind through rock at an impressive clip.
We've gotten the first slab poured, and we're starting to deploy the framers to the site to begin framing work. Things are moving quickly as we press on an around-the-clock, 7x24 construction schedule.
Alex
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