Hammer Time

If you were to ask me at the beginning of The Mosaic Centre project what the last 30 days of construction would feel like, I would not know how to respond – I’ve never done something like this. I can now answer that question with one word: manic.

This past Tuesday was one of the darkest days for the project. At three o’clock in the afternoon, I found myself smashing holes in the concrete floor on the fourth floor with a carpenter's hammer. The reason for this active destruction was not anger, but rather an investigation into the root cause of severe cracking in the concrete floors. Over the last two weeks, the interior slab (which is not structural, I must add) has begun to indicate signs of failure around the electrical conduits that were poured into the floor. Yeah, I was a touch disappointed today to say the least…and even a bit embarrassed as the emotions bubbled to the surface. We are three weeks from possession and I just finished smashing a twelve inch diameter hole in a polished concrete floor!

The construction team and I kneeled down almost in awe, hunched over the giant hole in the beautiful slab, as the dust was still settling and the hammer still in my hand. There were initial human reactions to defend the design decisions and with that, the near-immediate return to the “traditional” project instincts to point fingers at others on the team and lay blame. A management team meeting was held on site and the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) process proved to be resilient to the issue.

We drilled test holes in the slab at various locations to ascertain if the thickness was within specified tolerance. We surveyed each major crack to determine if we required of major repair was required or if we simply need to inject caulking to seal the gap.

Needless to say, it was a rough day for the team. Without the guidance and framework of the IPD process to guide the project through these last minute issues and deficiencies, I could only imagine the size of mushroom cloud that would have being seen above The Mosaic Centre that day.