Thursday, June 30, 2011 Photo taken from rear window of the Triangle shopping center today, showing men placing reinforcing irons in the gaps between what appear to be like giant "sarcophages". It looks like the construction of the hull of a catamaran. The plastic covered area to the left is the one in "Joystick" from June 28. The concrete is now hard. First, small white pieces of wood are placed on the ground. Then iron rods are placed longitudinally on these. Then the angled iron rods are attached to the longitudinal ones, and other longitudinal ones are attached to the sides of the bent ones in order to keep them in place. This is exactly the way the hull of a ship is constructed! Then U shaped iron rods are added within the growing framework (see lower right area in the photo). Based on these elements, a 3D mesh of iron rods is built up. The end of a 3D mesh can be seen to the left in the photo. Note the iron rods sticking out some 2 meters from the edge of the concrete. This is so they will intermesh with the rods being laid down in the center of the photo, making a very strong joint between the concrete that's already hard, and the concrete that will be poured later. This is the first time I've been able to directly observe how the men are constructing the reinforced concrete structures. I've been to ship yards and seen that type of construction, but had no idea the same methods were used here, and possibly elsewhere. Enjoy! (PS - the dirt has been piling up today, almost to the top of the manholes in yesterday's post.) :)