This 1925 cover image represents a concrete mix plant – a three – for a vital project in the center of Chicago, in which South Water Street was transformed into Wacker Drive, a large multilevel street that runs along the Chicago river in the loop.
The project entailed 300,000 excavation Cu and 120,000 Cu YD for concrete placement. To achieve the desired quality of the concrete, the infrequent practice of the sand flood was used.
This eliminated the uncertainty of using sand with unknown and variable humidity content, accelerated cement hydration, and also gave a mixture that flowed more freely with a lower amount of water.
The mechanical flood was a fixed volume steel drum in suspension under the sand trash. The drum was filled in part of water.
The sand then stuck to the drum until it was filled at the top, with any surplus of overflowing water. Then the saturated sand drum turned and turned to the hopper of the blender.
In addition, the proportion per finesse module and the proportion of water-cial help to ensure the quality of the concrete. Three crew of 19 men operated each dress. Eleven men handled the cement of stocks, loading the conveyor and emptying the 94 LB bags in the cement loading hopper.
A man operated the flood, one the stone bachelor, one of the blender, three worked the concrete concrete, one cut the concrete on the carts and there was an engineer.
The distribution was made by hand carts operating on the slopes.
