ForConstructionPros.com

Working with history

Working on a historical building such as the Virginia State Capitol is a little different than working on modern buildings. Construction practices used more than 200 years ago are quite different from today, but Haselden says the engineers working on the project decided how to integrate the old techniques with the new construction methods.

When it came to working specifically on the concrete project, Murphy says they ran into the old concrete all the time. To most people, 200-plus-year-old concrete might sound like a disaster waiting to happen, but Murphy says the concrete has held up really well over the years.

“The basics are still pretty much the same — but today we have better technology,” Murphy says. “The development of different additives like super plasticizers and using fly ashes and other types of pozzolans has changed the mechanics of the concrete a little bit, but you still have to put up forms, pour concrete in them and strip them off after the concrete gets hard.”

Haselden says that on projects like this, workers have to slow down the pace they usually keep on construction projects.