There was a whole lot of shaking going on this week at the construction site of Northwest Savings Bank's expansion in Warren.
A crew from Herbert F. Darling of Buffalo, a subcontractor for Building Systems, Inc., was driving piles to ready the site for excavation.
Sections of the half-inch steel sheeting retaining wall were driven more than 20 feet into the ground by a vibratory hammer attached to a 20-ton, 80-foot crane. The hammer is capable of striking hundreds of times per second and delivering about 30,000 foot-pounds of force each strike, according to H.F. Darling Superintendent August Gallagher.
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Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry
Pile drivers
Workers from Herbert F. Darling of Buffalo use a vibratory hammer suspended by an 80-foot crane to drive half-inch steel retaining wall into the ground at the construction site for the Northwest Savings Bank expansion in Warren.
Vibrations from the work could be felt through the ground and the crew did most of the driving during the morning hours in order to create as little disruption as possible for workers in the area, Gallagher said.
Darling's role did not end with the completion of the pile-driving.
The retaining walls will be secured using 60-foot tiebacks angled down at 25 degrees to hold the wall in place when the earth is removed from one side. "I'm going to tension the wall toward the (existing) building," Gallagher said.
The few feet of earth between the existing and new buildings will remain while the site of the new building will be excavated down to about 12 feet below the existing surface to accommodate the footers.