Comcast tower's massive foundation will be poured tonight over 12 hours

At the stroke of midnight, while most people will be snug in their beds, B. Pietrini & Sons will begin setting up for a massive concrete pour for the foundation of the new Comcast Innovation and Technology Center in Center City. At 2 a.m., the pour will begin and 400 trucks will start hauling 4,000 yards of concrete that will turn into a 10-foot thick, 14-million-pound foundation that will encapsulate reinforcement steel and support the 59-story skyscraper at 18th and Arch streets.

I spoke with Fran Pietrini, who is president of the King of Prussia, Pa., company his father started. Pietrini has worked with the company for the last 54 years and he told me about the complicated process of doing a big job like this.

How do you plan for a massive concrete job?

There's a lot of preparation and we started a year ago at the beginning of the bidding process. We got into it seriously three months ago, looking at logistics and how things line up, how to place the equipment, feed the equipment and connect the trucks to the pumps and how we will pour the concrete. You don't just throw it in a hole. There is a method to the madness.

Why do you do it on a Saturday during the wee hours of the morning?

There's less traffic and it's easier to do street closures on the weekend. We get there at midnight and put everything in place and set things up. We will light the site up and it will look like daylight there by the time we get going.

What sort of preparations do you make for a job of this scale?

It's belts and suspenders. We have a lot of different trucks coming from four different plants. We will be pouring 500 yards an hour and there's no one plant that can give up to 500 yards an hour and God forbid one plant goes down. You need them to keep you moving. You need to be pouring concrete constantly and it needs to be a continuous motion. The margin of error isn't a lot.

When will you be done?

We hope to get most of it poured between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. Around noon to 1 p.m. we should be totally done and we will put everything back in place and open the streets back up.

How does the weather factor into pouring concrete?

Rain or shine, it needs to get done because the city won't let us shut the streets down over the holidays. The cold is never the issue. What we need to worry about is the concrete getting too hot. This is perfect weather for pouring the foundation. The 30s and 40s...you couldn't pick better weather.

What are some other projects you have worked on in Philadelphia?

This is probably our sixth or seventh major pour in the city. 10 Rittenhouse Square. That took 3,000 yards. The Residences at the Ritz Carlton and that took 2,500 yards. Years ago we did 5,000 yards at a project at 16th and Market.

Source: Philadelphia business Journal