It's Done!

The shotcrete is over.  Thanks go to Dan, Jeremy, Chris, Damon, and Mark, and of course, Bill and Carol.  Here are before and after pictures.

The tunnel that is a deadend

 And just in time, as Hurricane (now tropical storm) Sandy approaches.  
Damon is a real trooper.  He withstood a lot of grief.  He was the inside man, taking any impact of shotcrete that broke thru the mesh.  Nobody else wanted that job. Bill and Carol started out doing it and were rather covered in concrete splatter. Here are some pictures of Damon and what he was up against.

As the shotcrete was applied on the East side on Thursday, a scary thing happened. Damon came running out, and immediately they stopped the shotcrete.  The props on the West side of the second floor where Damon was, all started crashing down. The arches had been weighed down on the East by the shotcrete, adjusting themselves a bit Westward, and the props came loose. At that point, they moved the lift to the West side and continued with the process. Imagine being there with things falling around you, realizing it's a massive load above you, and those things falling are to help keep that massive load up there.  You get out of there as fast as you can! I'm surprised he didn't jump out the second floor window or door.
Everybody, especially Bill and I, are very happy that we have accomplished this milestone.
Clean-up is happening now - the mess that shotcrete sprays.  Then, while storm Sandy is around, we shall rest.  After that, the window installation will start.  One last shot from above -