Putting up the Roof Beams and Supports

In early December, the construction really began to take off.  It became much more evident how big the new addition really was as the crew put up the first of the roof beams and support posts.  Later, ceiling trusses would be added. 

Here's one of the construction workers connecting one of the roof beams to an upright support.
 

The weather also played its role - note the snow in all these pictures.  The cold didn't delay the process too much, however!  The work went right along.

Pouring the Concrete

In mid-November, work began on the concrete floor for the new building. This process was delayed several times because the weather was too cold for the concrete to set properly.  Here is a picture of the old west side entrance, with the doors removed. You can see how uneven the ground was before the concrete got poured.

Once the ground was leveled out, the prep work began. The concrete was poured on top of the yellow plastic and metal mesh. The box you see in the middle of the following picture is the support for an eventual roof beam.

The concrete got poured through a huge crane arm. If you look closely, you can see the concrete coming out of the bottom of the spout. The construction workers directed the mouth of the arm to the sections of the floor where they needed the concrete to go.


This is a great picture that shows the concrete coming out of the crane arm. It also shows how they smoothed the concrete.

Here the construction workers are smoothing out the floor:

And, voila! The finished floor for the new building! This photo is looking east onto the old west side of the building.

Fun Picture

Here's a fun picture of the construction cones by our nice tree on the east side of the current building, right by the parking lot entrance.

Installing Water Pipes for the New Sprinkler System

The new Madison Library District building will be completely up-to-date with all the latest safety regulations. This will include a sprinkler system throughout the building in the event of a fire.

In order to get the water pipes in the correct places for the new sprinkler system, the construction company had to knock a hole in the southwest corner of the existing building. This hole just happened to coincide with our Young Adult section of the library. Vivian, our Children's and YA Librarian, moved and rearranged all the books in that corner in order to accommodate the construction. It was quite an effort on her part, and she did a tremendous job!

Our parking lot also was involved with this process. A trench had to be dug so that pipes could be connected from the city water main to the new construction. The parking lot between the library and the tabernacle was closed for about 10 days while this process was completed.

Here's a couple of our fabulous construction workers, posing for the camera!

Moving the Electrical Pole

During the first week of November, the construction was put on hold for a few days. Rocky Mountain Power needed to move the existing electrical pole, as it was in the wrong place for the new building. Cement couldn't be poured until the electicity was moved.

Rocky Mountain Power had to come out and reposition the electical pole. It was quite a process to watch!

The library was closed on November 3rd so that Rocky Mountain Power could move the power equipment from the old pole to the new pole.  During this move, the power had to be shut off, and thus the closure.

Introduction to the construction effort

Here is a brief introduction to the contsruction effort. For the full history of the library, visit http://www.madisonlib.org/about.html.
Our library, like many others in the area, has been too crowded for a number of years. The community room was taken out in 1999 to make room for a larger children's area and a new YA section. We've added shelving and moved things around trying to make the most of the space we had for as long as possible. Knowing that a new facility was inevitable, the library's administration looked at several possibilities for moving to a new space in Rexburg. The decision was made in January 2008 to hold a bond election to fund a renovation and expansion of the current building. The $3.92 Million bond was passed with 74.36% of the 1,400 votes cast.

Starting the Foundation

At the beginning of October, the construction crew began to lay the foundation. Here's a few pictures showing that process:

As many of you know, the new section will add approximately 60% more space to our existing building. It was really fun to see the outline of the new construction, and realize how big the new library will be!

The day the trees came down

Unfortunately, these three old pine trees were too big to be moved and in too poor a condition to be saved.

In fact, one of the trees was damaged this summer during a windy storm. A large part off the top fell across our parking lot. Luckily no one was injured and no property was damaged. We can thank the City of Rexburg for coming to clean up the mess.

Damage from the wind storm. 5/13/09

Demolition

The first things on the distribution center to go were the concrete front steps and back porch. We had hoped someone would be able to move the old home off the property, but it would have been too costly. Instead the contractor demolished the building on September 21, 2009.

Pictures from the groundbreaking

This is the crowd waiting for the program to start.

Nick Allison, Madison Library Foundation

Chris Mann, Rexburg City Council

Judy Dewey, Director

Dr. Geoffrey Thomas, Madison School District

Pam Beard, Library Board

Donna Benfield, Rexburg Chamber of Commerce

Jeniel Facer, Library Board

Gordon Timothy, Library Board

Blaine Robertson, Library Board Chairman

At the conclusion of the ceremony, anyone who wished to participate

was invited to help dig for the new library.

Prep work for the groundbreaking

The setting for the actual groundbreaking was the little strip of lawn on the east side of the distribution center. Here's what it looked like that morning, nothing but a patch of tall weeds. The sod was cut out earlier in the summer. About an hour before the ceremony was to take place, the contractor, Bateman-Hall, cleared the space with a backhoe.

And here it is all ready for the ceremony.

This is the north side of the old building before we decorated for the groundbreaking.

Now the stage is set...

Bird's Eye View

This is the view of what the new library should look like from the air. The current library is in the top right corner. You can see near the middle of the south side the drive up book return.

Site for the library's expansion

This is the site for the new section of the library. The building on the left is the old LDS Church Distribution Center. That will be torn down to make room for the addition and the entrance to the parking lot. The current facility is seen on the right.