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Tariffville Water Commission
3 Videos Taken During Tank Construction

There are three videos you can view by clicking below.
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1) the videos are large, and may take a few minutes to download.
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1)   Concrete being poured into a form for a "pie-shaped" "dome sector". Each of the 12 dome sectors weighs about 8,500 pounds, and has a convex-up curvature so that the tank dome will shed rain water, and will need no support underneath it (similar to a Roman arch, but in 3 dimensions). Note the use of a curved "screed board" to create the precise curvature needed. Dome sectors are 17 feet long, 13 feet wide at the wide (outside) end, and 4.5 feet at the narrow (inside) end. They are poured one atop the other, six high, allowing a full day between pours to allow curing of the concrete.


2)  Pre-stress wire being applied to the wall, using a bucket loader to pull a trailer around and around the tank. Over 400 round trips are made, producing a tight "girdle" of steel around the 13 concrete wall sections. Over 12 miles of steel wire weighing more than 5,000 pounds are used; this pre-stress wire ensures that all concrete is always in compression. The bucket loader pulls the wire from a spool on the trailer through a "die" that reduces the wire diameter by about 12%, and creates a huge tension during the entire wire application process. The "traveler" at the bottom of the tank is adding one wrap of pre-stress wire, precisely spaced from the prior wrap.


3)  "Shotcrete" being applied to the tank wall. Shotcrete is a concrete or mortar that is applied with high pressure air, ensuring that there is a good bond between the shotcrete and the pre-stress metal wire in the wall sections. There are several layers of shotcrete on the wall sections, encapsulating all the steel and providing a protective coating on the steel which prevents rusting.


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