Wilshire Grand Breaks Record For Largest Concrete Pour

CBSLA.com) — ^ | February 16, 2014 1:00 PM

[BenLurkin]

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Developers made history Sunday at the site of the former Wilshire Grand hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Adjudicator for the Guinness Book of World Records Michael Empric announced just after 11:30 a.m. that workers had broken the world record for the longest continuous pour.

The Wilshire Grand has a largest pour of 21,200 cubic yard, which is a new Guinness World Records title,” Empric said.

The Associated Press reports that the concrete pour of 82 million pounds of concrete lasted over 18 hours. The concrete was poured into a massive pit in order to build the foundation for the much-anticipated, 73-story tower.

“It’s a symbol of a Los Angeles that’s coming back,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Saturday. “It’s putting the recession in the rear-view mirror, creating jobs.”

Along with breaking the world record, planners had also expected to save funds due to the consecutive pouring as opposed to taking breaks in between.

The $1 billion project includes office space, restaurants, retail, and 900 hotel rooms.

The hotel is scheduled to open in 2017.

[Arlis]

I understand from both civil engineers and concrete companies that all concrete indeed cures forever.

But for max. strength, it has to cure a certain percentage, and that can be delayed with too large a pour......

[Still Thinking]

I can’t believe they did pours in inches at a time. Sheesh, they’d still be pouring the thing today. I’m thinking more like 10 or 20 ft of height at a time. Reasonable balance of required form strength and progress rate.

[Still Thinking]

7th and Fig? They didn’t tear out The Pantry, did they? Great restaurant. My uncle tiled the place.

[Still Thinking]

I think The Pantry is at about 4th or 5th, isn’t it?

[upchuck]

This building is 1,100 tall and is being constructed in earthquake country. Hello??

[mountn man]

Actually, the damn concrete IS STILL curing.

[Moonman62]

It was always my understanding that if you pour too much concrete at once the heat would make it take forever to set. I read the reason they poured the Hoover Dam in sections is that if they had poured it all at once it would still be curing today.

They used cooling pipes and pumped chilled water through them. They also poured the concrete in sections. Supposedly the concrete is still curing.

[digger48]

You can see the men inside the forms.

Looks to be at least 6-8' high.

[tenger]

According to wikipedia regarding Hoover Dam: “Concrete cores were removed from the dam for testing in 1995; they showed that ‘Hoover Dam’s concrete has continued to slowly gain strength’.” So, it seems to still be curing. I’ve read that somewhere else.

[ken5050]

And because when concrete sets up, its an exothermic ( heat producing) process, deep inside Hoover it’s still HOT. The dam actually has hundreds of miles of piping inside the concrete..water runs through it to cool it..

[ThomasThomas]

Pantry Is 9th and Fig

[digger48]

“...concrete blocks in columns were poured, some as large as 50 feet (15 m) square and 5 feet (1.5 m) high. Each five-foot form contained a series of 1 inch (25 mm) steel pipes through which first cool river water, then ice-cold water from a refrigeration plant was run. Once an individual block had cured and had stopped contracting, the pipes were filled with grout.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam

[Trod Upon]

Look at the bright side: If it comes down, lots and lots of ‘Rats are gonna get squished.

[max americana]

I think that’s now called Engine No 28, and it’s right after you get off the subway or Red Line. If that’s it, then it’s still there.

[BenLurkin]

When the Big One hits — some water is likely to get sloshed out of that 73rd floor pool.

[mountn man]

The buckets they used to transport the concrete was 4 or 8 yd dump buckets. The concrete was a very dry mix and had a very short set up time. If the crane operators were too slow, the concrete could set up in the bucket. For this reason, the operators were the highest paid workers, ensuring they had the best. 7 "puddlers" with shovels, would then scoop and push the concrete around and men with vibrators would vibrate out the voids.
By the time another bucket would arrive, the previous concrete pour would already be setting.

[mountn man]

The buckets containing concrete were 4 to 8 yds. 8 yds= 216 cu ft

If each area is, lets say 20' x 20', that's 400 sq ft. That means each bucket would drop 6" of concrete.

[BenLurkin]

The Pantry is a block south of there — was still in business several years ago.

[digger48]

I wasn’t disagreeing.

with all the rebar and cooling pipe and only dropping in 8 yd at a time, It would have been near impossible for someone to get poured over

[Still Thinking]

Oh yeah, inches per bucket load, sure. I was talking about the depth of concrete that would be liquid at one time.