One of the largest single concrete pours in the history of the Cayman Islands took place at the Camana Bay development on Wednesday.
The concrete was for the base slab of the parking structure being constructed by McAlpine Ltd.
National Concrete delivered 72 mixer trucks of concrete between midnight and 9:30 am, for a total of 648 cubic yards.
‘It’s the largest single pour we’ve ever done,’ said National Concrete manager Gerson Henriquez, adding that it surpassed the previous largest single pour by nearly 150 cubic yards.
Mr. Henriquez also said that the single pour was the largest ever in the Cayman Islands in such a short timeframe.
‘There was a larger one in the 70’s on the George Town dock, but that was over 36 hours.’
Nine drivers and two pump operators worked through the night for National Concrete to get the job done.
McAlpine works manager Les Foreman said his company had a crew of 17 men working through the night. There task was made more difficult when it began to rain around 5 am.
The pour was made bigger because it had already been delayed by rain last week.
‘We basically combined two pours into one,’ said Mr. Henriquez.
Despite Wednesday’s rain, Mr. Foreman said the pour went very well.
‘We anticipated we would complete the job between 10 am and 12 pm, so we finished a little early,’ he said.
The rain will delay other aspects of the pour, however.
‘The architectural specifications call for a light broom finish,’ he said. ‘That’s going to take a lot longer now because of the rain.’
Originally from the United Kingdom, Mr. Foreman said he was used to the challenges presented by concrete pours in the rain.
Cameron Graham, the vice president construction for the Camana Bay project said the pour covered a surface area of just under 10,000 square feet.
He said the parking structure project had been a little behind because of bad weather, and that the large single concrete pour was necessary to bring things back on schedule.
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