Assembly required

Site clearing began in mid-August of last year, with site prep and initial work on the foundation beginning in late October. Until this week, on-site work had been focused on creating the two-story concrete “podium” upon which the various modules — about 100 in total — are now being stacked. Although the modules vary in size, the majority are roughly 73 1/2 feet long (they span the entire width of the building) by 13 1/2 feet wide, and weigh between 18 and 22 tons each. Most contain two finished apartments, one at each end, with a gap in the middle forming the hallway that will run the length of the building. Specialty modules contain laundry rooms, elevator lobbies, stairwells, mechanical rooms and the like. And it appears that a handful of shorter modules containing just one apartment each will be used to form the street end of the building.

These extremely long modules are tricky to transport. They come in on semitrucks with special trailers that can stretch to accommodate the module’s extreme length; that length makes tight turns difficult to execute. I watched as the driver bringing the very first module attempted to back onto Vera Avenue from El Camino Real. That maneuver didn’t really work, and tied up traffic on El Camino for quite some time. Subsequently, the trucks have been turning cab-first onto Vera, and then backing out onto El Camino once they’ve been unloaded.

Unloading and positioning the modules is a tricky process all its own. The company in charge of this phase of the project, ProSet LLC, brought in two large mobile cranes to do the job. The larger of the two was positioned on Vera Avenue, in front of the building. It was first used to lift and place the second crane on top of the two-story concrete podium. Then, when a semi with a module turns onto Vera and parks in front of the building site, the large crane grabs the module (using four fabric straps that are threaded beneath the module) and “flies” it to the top of the podium, placing it near the street end. Next, the crane on top of the podium picks up the module and, with the assistance of a handful of workers tugging on ropes and pushing on the suspended module, flies the module to the rear of the building and places it into its final position.

On Monday, ProSet managed to place a handful of modules. On Tuesday, they picked up the pace, and by Wednesday they hopefully hit their goal of placing 10 modules per day. Ideally, the plan was to spend 10 days placing all 100 modules, although as it turns out it may end up taking more like 12. But 12 days to go from zero apartments to five stories (atop a two-story concrete platform) containing 138 mostly finished apartments and various ancillary rooms is amazing and illustrates the prime advantage of modular construction. Using standard techniques (which I presume is how the first two floors, inside the podium, will be constructed), building these upper five floors would have taken a great many months. As well, constructing the modules off site, in parallel and in controlled conditions, can save real money (although the cost to transport the modules and then crane them into place does need to be taken into account).

The assembly process is absolutely fascinating. In less than two weeks the building will have achieved its final height, and work will turn to building out the first two floors, adding the roof and the building’s exterior surfaces, hooking up each module’s power, water and sewage lines, finishing the hallways and installing the elevators. I plan to watch to the very end, although the most exciting part of the job is happening now, and won’t go on much longer.