Found out the old concrete at the city hall plaza was poured in a single 18-hour shift

I was doing a patch job on the steps at the old city hall in Springfield last Tuesday. The foreman pointed to the main plaza slab and said, 'That whole thing was placed and finished in one go back in '78. Crew worked straight through from 4 AM to 10 PM.' I did the math and that's over 400 cubic yards. It blew my mind that they could manage the heat and the joints on a pour that big without modern gear. Makes you think about how crews back then just had to muscle through it. I can't imagine the planning that went into keeping the mix trucks rolling and the finishers fresh for that long. Has anyone else worked on or heard of a monster single-day pour from back in the day?

3 comments

3 Comments

shanegibson6d ago

Ever see a pour that big go wrong?

benk266d ago

Sounds like a good way to get a cracked slab, though.

blairj556d ago

Yeah, that cracked slab fear is real. I mean, if they didn't get the control joints cut in time or the mix was off, it's basically guaranteed. Seen it happen with way smaller pours than this.