Concrete Construction Part 28

_Job I._--The sand was delivered from the stock pile by a team hitched to a drag sc.r.a.per, and was dumped alongside the mixer where two men shoveled it into the hopper. On the same job the concrete was hauled away from the mixer in Briggs' concrete carts. With a gang of 30 men and 2 to 4 horses hauling concrete in Briggs' carts, the contractor averaged 1,200 sq. yds., or 200 cu. yds., per day of 10 hours. With wages of laborers at 15 cts. per hour, and a single horse at the same rate, the cost of labor was 26 cts. per cu. yd., or less than 4 cts. per sq. yd.

of concrete base 6 ins. thick. The coal was a nominal item, and did not add 1 ct. per cu. yd. to the cost. In this case the mixer was set up on a side street and the concrete was hauled in the carts for a distance of a block each way from the mixer. At first four carts were used, but as the concreting approached the mixer, less hauling was required, and finally only two carts were used. An ill.u.s.tration of a Briggs cart is given by Fig. 113; it is hauled by one horse, which the driver leads, and is dumped by an ingenious device operated from the horse's head. The cart dumps from the bottom and spreads the load in a layer about 8 or 9 ins. thick, so that no greater amount of shoveling is necessary than when barrows are used. It took about 20 seconds for the cart to back up and get its load and about 5 seconds to dump and spread the load.

_Job II._--In this job the mixer was charged with wheelbarrows and wheelbarrows were also employed to take the mixed concrete to the work, the mixer being moved forward at frequent intervals. The stock piles were continuous, sand on one side of the street and stone on the other side. A 1-3-6 Portland cement concrete was used, a very rich mixture for a 6-in. foundation. The organization of the working gang was as follows:

Men loading and wheeling gravel 8 Men a.s.sisting in loading gravel 2 Man dumping barrows into hopper 1 Men loading and wheeling sand 3 Man dumping barrows into hopper 1 Men wheeling concrete in barrows 7 Men spreading concrete 3 Men tamping concrete 2 Man pouring cement into hopper 1 Man operating mixer 1 Man shoveling spilled concrete 1 Man opening cement bags 1 Engineer 1 -- Total men in gang 32

The average day's output of this gang was 150 cu. yds., or 900 sq. yds.

in 8 hours; but on the best day's work the output was 200 cu. yds., or 1,200 sq. yds. in 8 hours, which is a remarkable record for 32 men and a mixer working only 8 hours.

The following is the labor cost of 8,896 sq. yds. of 4-in. concrete foundation for an asphalt pavement constructed in New York City in 1904:

Item. Per sq yd.

Foreman at $3.75 $0.030 Laborers at $1.50 0.242 Teams at $5 0.040 Steam engine at $3.50 0.028 ------ Total $0.340

The concrete was a 1-3-6 mixture and was mixed in a Foote mixer. These costs are compiled from data collected by the authors.

~FOUNDATION CONSTRUCTION FOR STREET RAILWAY TRACK USING CONTINUOUS MIXERS.~--The following account of the methods and cost of constructing a concrete foundation for street railway track at St. Louis, Mo., is compiled from information published by Mr. Richard McCulloch. The work was done by day labor by the United Railways Co., in 1906. Figure 114 shows the concrete construction. A 1-2-6 Portland cement, broken stone concrete mixed by machine was used.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 114.--Concrete Foundation for Street Railway Track.]

The material for the concrete was distributed on the street beside the tracks in advance of the machine, the sand being first deposited, then the crushed rock piled on that, and finally the cement sacks emptied on top of this pile. The materials were shoveled from this pile into the concrete mixing machine without any attempt at hand mixing on the street. Great care was taken in the delivery of materials on the street to have exactly the proper quant.i.ty of sand, rock and cement, so that there would be enough for the ballasting of the track to the proper height and that none would be left over. Each car was marked with its capacity in cubic feet, and each receiver was furnished with a table by which he could easily estimate the number of lineal feet of track over which the load should be distributed.

The concrete mixing machines were designed and built in the shops of the United Railways Co. Three machines were used in this work, one for each gang. The machine is composed of a Drake continuous worm mixer, fed by a chain dragging in a cast-iron trough. The trough is 36 ft. long, so that there is room for 14 men to shovel into it. Water is sprayed into the worm after the materials are mixed dry. This water was obtained from the fire plugs along the route. In the first machine built, the Drake mixer was 8 ft. long. In the two newer machines the mixer was 10 ft. long.

Both the conveyor and the mixer were motor driven, current being obtained for this purpose from the trolley wire overhead. Two types of machines were used, one in which the conveyor trough was straight and 45 in. above the rail, and the other in which the conveyor trough was lowered back of the mixer, being 25 in. above the rail. The latter type had the advantage of not requiring such a lift in shoveling, but the trough is so low that a motor truck cannot be placed underneath it. In the high machine the mixer is moved forward by a standard motor truck under the conveyor. In the low machine the mixer is moved by a ratchet and gear on the truck underneath the mixer. A crew of 27 men is required to work each machine, and under average conditions concrete for 80 lin.

ft. of single track, amounting to 22 cu. yds., can be discharged per hour.

The costs of the concrete materials delivered per cubic yard of concrete were: Cement, per barrel, $1.70; sand, per cu. yd., $0.675, and stone, per cu. yd., $0.425. The cost of the concrete work per cubic yard and per lineal foot of track was as follows:

Item. Per lin. ft. Per cu. yd.

Concrete materials $0.791 $2.92 Labor mixing and placing 0.071 0.26 ------ ----- Total labor and materials $0.862 $3.18

~FOUNDATION CONSTRUCTION USING BATCH MIXERS AND WAGON HAULAGE, ST. LOUIS, MO.~--The following record of the method and cost of laying a concrete foundation for street pavement using machine mixing and wagon haulage is given by Mr. D. A. Fisher. The foundation was 6 ins. thick. The gravel was dumped from wagons into a large hopper, raised by a bucket elevator into bins, and drawn off through gates into receiving hoppers on the charging platform where the cement was added. The receiving hoppers discharged into the mixers, which discharged the mixed concrete into a loading car that dumped into wagons, which delivered it on the street where wanted. The longest haul in wagons was 30 mins., but careful tests showed that the concrete had hardened well. The wagons were patent dump wagons of the drop-bottom type. Mr. Fisher says:

"You may consider the following figures a fair average of the plant referred to, working to its capacity. To these amounts, however, must be added the interest on the investment, the cost of wrecking the plant and the depreciation of the same, superintendence, and the pay roll that must be maintained in wet weather. I am a.s.suming the street as already brought to grade and rolled.

"With labor at $1.75 per day of 10 hours, teams at $4, engineer and foremen at $3, and engine at $5 per day, concrete mixed and put in place by the above method costs:

Per cu. yd.

To mix $0.12 to $0.15 To deliver to street 0.10 to 0.14 To spread and tamp in place 0.08 to 0.11 -------------- Total $0.30 to $0.40

"The mixers are No. 2 Smith, sold by the Contractors' Supply Co., Chicago, Ill., and a yd. cube, sold by Munic.i.p.al Engineering & Contracting Co., Chicago.

"The above figures are on the basis of a batch every 2 minutes, which is easily maintained by using the loading car, as by this means there will be no delay in the operation of the plant owing to the irregularity of the arrival of the teams.

"My experience leads me to believe that a better efficiency can be obtained by using mixers of 1 cu. yd. capacity, and that the batch mixer is the only type of machine where any certainty of the proportion of the mixture is realized."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 115.--Chicago Improved Cube Traction Mixer for Pavement Foundation.]

~FOUNDATION CONSTRUCTION USING A TRACTION MIXER.~--In laying a 6-in.

foundation for an asphalt pavement in Buffalo, N. Y., an average of 100 sq. yds., or 16.6 cu. yds., of concrete in place was made per hour using the traction mixer shown by Fig. 115. This mixer was made by the Munic.i.p.al Engineering & Contracting Co., of Chicago, Ill., and consisted of one of that company's improved cube mixers operated by a gasoline engine and equipped with the regulation mechanical charging device and also with a swinging conveyor to deliver the mixed concrete to the work.

The feature of the apparatus in its application to paving work is the conveyor. This was 25 ft. long and pivoted at the mixer end so as to swing through an arc of 170. The mixer discharged into a skip or bucket traveling on the conveyor frame and discharging over the end spreading its load anywhere within a radius of 25 ft. In operation the mixer traveled along the center of the street, backing away from the finished foundation and toward the stock pile, which was continuous and was deposited along the center of the street. The bulk of the sand and stone was thus shoveled direct into the charging bucket and the remainder was wheeled to the bucket in barrows. As the charging bucket is only 14 ins.

high the barrows could be dumped directly into it from the ground. The gang worked was 17 including a foreman and one boy, and with this gang 100 sq. yds. of 6-in. foundation was laid per hour. a.s.suming an average wage of 20 cts. an hour the cost of mixing and placing the foundation concrete was 3.4 cts. per sq. yd. or 20.4 cts. per cu. yd. for labor alone.

~FOUNDATION CONSTRUCTION USING CONTINUOUS MIXER.~--The foundation was 6 ins. thick for an asphalt pavement and was laid in Chicago, Ill. The concrete used was exceptionally rich for pavement foundation work, it being a 1-3-6 Lehigh Portland cement, broken stone mixture. The mixing was done by machine, a mixer made by the Buffalo Concrete Mixer Co., Buffalo, N. Y., being used. This mixer was equipped with an elevating charging hopper and was operated as a continuous mixer. The mixer was mounted on wheels and was pulled along the center of the street ahead of the work with its discharge end toward the work. Moves of about 25 to 30 ft. were made, the mixer being pulled ahead for this distance each time that the concrete came up to its discharge end. The stock piles were continuous, sand on one side and stone on the other side of the street.

Cement was stored in a pile at each end of the block. All materials were wheeled from stock piles to mixer in wheelbarrows. The men wheeling sand and stone loaded their own barrows, wheeled them to the mixer and discharged them directly into the elevating hopper. No runways were used, the barrows being wheeled directly on the ground. The cement was brought in barrows, two or three bags being a load, and dumped alongside a cement box which was located close to and at one side of the elevating hopper. A man untied the bags and emptied them into the cement box and another man scooped the cement out of the box in bucketfuls and emptied it over the sand and stone in the elevating hopper. The mixer discharged onto a sheet iron shoveling board, and the concrete was carried in shovels from shoveling board to place, the length of carry being a maximum of 25 to 30 ft. Two men were required to pull down the cone of concrete at the discharge end of the mixer and to keep the stone from separating and rolling down the sides. The gang was organized as follows:

No. Men.

Loading and wheeling stone 10 Loading and wheeling sand 3 to 4 Loading and wheeling cement 2 Untieing and emptying cement bags 1 Charging cement to hopper 1 Operating mixer and hopper 1 Pulling down and tending discharge 2 Carrying concrete in shovels 8 Spreading concrete 2 Tamping concrete 2 Sweeping concrete 1 General laborers 3 Foreman 1 Watchman 1 Timekeeper 1 -- Total gang 40

This gang averaged 1,000 sq. yds. of 6-in. foundation per 10-hour day; a maximum of 1,400 sq. yds. was laid in a day. We have thus an average of 167 cu. yds. and a maximum of 234 cu. yds. of concrete foundation mixed and placed per 10-hour day. At an average wage of $2 per day the average labor cost of mixing and placing concrete was 48 cts. per cu. yd. or 8 cts. per sq. yd. of 6-in. foundation. It was stated that the gang was larger by three men than was ordinarily used owing to certain extra work being done at the time that the above figures were collected. Taking out three extra men and the timekeeper and watchman we get 34 men actually working in mixing and placing concrete. This reduced gang gives us a labor cost for mixing and placing of about 41 cts. per cu. yd. or 6.8 cts. per sq. yd. of 6-in. foundation.

~FOUNDATION CONSTRUCTION USING A BATCH MIXER.~--The following figures are an average of several jobs using a Ransome -cu. yd. mixer for constructing 6-in. foundations. The mixer was moved 1,000 ft. at a time and the work conducted 500 ft. in each direction from each station. The concrete materials were delivered from stock pile to mixer in wheelbarrows and the mixed concrete was hauled to the work in two-wheeled Ransome carts. Run planks were laid for the carts and one man readily pushed a cart holding 6 cu. ft. The men had to work fast on the long haul but had an easy time when the haul was short. The organization of the gang was as follows, wages being $1.50 per day:

10 men loading and wheeling stone $15.00 4 men loading and wheeling sand 6.00 2 men handling cement 3.00 1 fireman 2.00 1 man dumping mixer 1.50 5 men wheeling carts 7.50 3 men spreading and ramming 4.50 1 foreman 3.50 ------ Total wages per day $43.00

This gang averaged 1,080 sq. yds. of 6-in. foundation or 180 cu. yds. of concrete in place per day which gives a labor cost of 24 cts per cu. yd.

or 4 cts. per sq. yd. for mixing and placing.

CHAPTER XV.

METHODS AND COST OF CONSTRUCTING SIDEWALKS, PAVEMENTS AND CURB AND GUTTER.

Next to pavement foundations the most extensive use of concrete in street work is for cement walks and concrete curb and gutter. Usually the mixing and placing of the concrete is hand work, practically the only exceptions being where pavement base, curbing and sidewalks are built all at once, using machine mixers. The same objections that have been raised to machine mixers in laying pavement foundation are raised against them for curb and walk construction, and owing to the much smaller yardage per lineal foot of street in walk and curb work these objections carry more force than they do in case of paving work. Another argument against the use of mixers is that both walk and curb and gutter work involve the use of forms and the application of mortar finish, the placing of which are really the limiting factors in the rate of progress permissible, and this rate is too slow to consume an output necessary to make a mixer plant economical as compared with hand mixing where so much transportation is involved. Concrete sidewalk and curb work are essentially hand mixing work; they, therefore, involve a careful study of the economies of hand mixing and wheelbarrow haulage which are fully discussed in Chapter II.

CEMENT SIDEWALKS.

Sidewalk construction consists in molding on a suitably prepared sub-base a concrete slab from 3 to 7 ins. thick, depending on practice, and finishing its top surface with a to 1-in. wearing surface of cement mortar.

~GENERAL METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION.~--The excavation and preparation of the sub-grade call for little notice beyond the warning that they should never be neglected. The authors have seen many thousands of feet of cement walk laid in the middle West in which the sub-base was placed directly on the natural sod, often covered with gra.s.s and weeds a foot high. Such practice is wholly vicious. The sod should always be removed and the surface soil excavated to a depth depending upon the climate and nature of the ground and the foundation bed well tamped. From 4 to 6 ins. depth of excavation will serve where the soil is reasonably hard and there are no heavy frosts; with opposite conditions a 12-in.

excavation is none too deep. The thickness of the broken stone, gravel, cinder or sand sub-base should likewise be varied with the character of the soil, the conditions of natural drainage and the prevalence of frost. In well drained sandy soils 6 to 8 ins. of sub-base are sufficient, but in clayey soils with poor natural drainage the sub-base should be from 10 to 12 ins. thick at least; the local conditions will determine the thickness of sub-base necessary and in places it may be desirable to provide by artificial drainage against the acc.u.mulation of water under the concrete. Tile drains are better and cheaper than excessively deep foundations. The thorough tamping of the sub-base is essential to avoid settling and subsequent cracking of the concrete slab. This is a part of sidewalk work which is often neglected.

Portland cement concrete, sand and broken stone or gravel mixtures in the proportions of 1-3-5 and 1-3-6 are used for base slabs. For walks up to 7 ft. wide the slab is made 3 ins. thick for residence streets and 4 to 5 ins. thick for business streets; for wider walks the thickness is increased to 7 ins. for 8-ft. width and 7 ins. for 9 to 10-ft.

width. Roughly the thickness of the walk in inches (base and top together) is made about equal to its width in feet. The concrete is deposited in a single layer and tamped thoroughly, either in separate blocks behind suitable forms or in a continuous slab which is while fresh cut through to make separate blocks. For walks up to 8 ft. wide the slab is divided by transverse joints s.p.a.ced about the width of the walk apart, but for the wider walks the safety of this division depends upon the thickness of the base; an 8-ft. walk with a 5-in. base can safely be laid with joints 8 ft. apart, but if the slab is only 4 ins.

thick it had better be laid in 44-ft. squares. The mode of procedure in base construction is as follows:

The sub-base being laid, side forms held by stakes are placed as shown by Fig. 116, with the top edges of the boards exactly to the grade of the top surface of the finished walk. The concrete is then deposited between these side forms and tamped until it is brought up to the level marked by the templet A. If the plan is to deposit the base in sections transverse plates of 3/8 to in. steel are set across the walk between the side boards at proper intervals and the concrete tamped behind them; sometimes the concreting is done in alternate blocks. When the steel plate is withdrawn an open joint is left for expansion and contraction. Where the plan is to lay the base in one piece which is afterwards cut into blocks, the cutting is done with a spade or cleaver.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 116.--Sketch Showing Method of Constructing Cement Walks.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 117.--"Jointer" for Cement Sidewalk Work.]

Portland cement mortar mixed 1 to 1 to 1 to 2 is used for the wearing surface, and is laid from in. to 1 ins. thick, depending upon the width of the walk and the thickness of the base. As a rule the mortar is mixed rather stiff; it is placed with trowels in one coat usually, but sometimes in two coats, and less often by tamping. The mortar coat is brought up flush with the top edges of the side forms by means of the templet B, and the top finished by floating and troweling. The wearing coat is next divided into sections corresponding with the sections into which the base is divided, by cutting through it with a trowel guided by a straight edge and then rounding the edges of the cut with a special tool called a jointer and shown by Fig. 117. An edger, Fig. 118, is then run around the outside edges of the block to round them. The laying of the mortar surface must always follow closely the laying of the base so that the two will set together.