GOLDEN REEF MINE TRAMWAY
Tram
Tower Installation
Chapter 4 of 5
This
is the fourth part of the Golden Reef Mine Tramway project. The first three
chapters discussed the history, design and assembling the towers. This chapter
will discuss the installation of the towers.
FENCE INSTALLATION
Surveying
the Property Before we
could install the fence we had to survey the property to make sure the fence is
on the museum property and the tram towers were placed on the map. Graham
Surveying & Engineering, Inc. performed the surveying at no cost. They
produced a map of the entire museum property with the stamp mill, fence and
tramway placed on the map so that we could get a permit to build the fence and
then the tramway.
Fence
Construction We
obtained our permit from the Town and commenced the construction of the fence
from rebar welded together. The holes were dug for the fence posts and bought
off by the Town and then we constructed the fence. The picture below shows the
fence installed on the east side of the tramway exhibit with the double gate to
allow equipment access.
TRAM TOWER INSTALLATION
Footings
Layout We had to dig
the footings, which was no minor challenge. The ground in the area is solid
shale and we needed to dig the footing holes that were 2’ X 2’ X3’. The
pictures below show the layout of the footings on the south end of the display.
Digging the
Footings The picture below
shows the crew using a jackhammer to break up the shale. This was very hard
work and it took several days to complete the dig. Remember, we had five more
of the holes that had to be dug for Tower #2.
The picture
below is self-explanatory.
Installing
the Forms We fabricated
the (5) forms for each tower. The forms had to be in precise position and
elevation to ensure to make sure that the towers would align perfectly. If they
were off the cable guides would not align correctly and there would be
excessive stress on the towers.
Pouring the
Concrete We had (10)
footings a little larger than 2’ X 2’ X3’. We hired a concrete pumper to aid in
installing the concrete since there was no direct access to the forms.. It
would have been much harder to wheel the concrete from the truck to the forms.
As it was the pour only took a little over 30 minutes. The picture below shows
the setup for the concrete delivery.
The picture
below shows the pouring of the concrete using the 3” delivery hose. This saved
us a lot of backbreaking work if we had to use wheelbarrows.
Forms
Removal This seems like
a simple task, but some of the forms got buried in the concrete. This made the
removal a major activity.
Ready for
the Towers The bases
are now ready to accept the towers!
Towers Installation With the towers already in the area and
the footings read for the towers, the next activity is to install the towers on
the bases. This was done by our local electric utility, Arizona Public Service.
Both towers
installed and bolted in place on the (10) footings.
NEXT: Chapter #5 Tramway Setup
