Big doings at the JHU library construction site

Uncle Jack's last post presented a brief pictorial history of the progress so far of the men and machines who are building the new Brody Learning Commons adjacent to the Eisenhower Library on the Johns Hopkins campus.  A major development occurred a few days ago which he deems worthy of special attention.  He has been waiting for this shoe to drop for months and the fact that it finally has indicates that some serious new work on the building is about to begin.

Uncle Jack was baffled a couple of weeks ago when workmen poured this concrete slab on the upper level of the construction site.  He was unable to discern any possible use for it given its size and location.

Now he knows.  It was the base for an enormous construction crane that was assembled with help of a very large portable crane last Thursday.

Here the portable crane is lifting the operator's cabin into place on the top of the tower.  Several very brave men are up there bolting things together in a nasty wind.

Up goes another piece.  This was a fascinating process to watch.  (This photo was taken from the comfort of Uncle Jack's living room so you can get an idea of how far he has to walk to the construction site).

And here is the completely assembled crane ready to go to work.  Assembly took only one working day which Uncle Jack thought was amazing.

Meanwhile, down in the hole, infrastructure work goes on.  Horizontal pipe has been laid and covered and the first stage of piping for wastewater collection has been installed in a couple of places.  Every day it gets a little more complicated and he still has no idea how they will get that big shovel out of the hole when the time comes.

All around the campus and the neighborhood in general leaves are turning and presenting beautiful bursts of color everywhere.

These trees are in Uncle Jack's backyard, so to speak.

    And these are on the JHU campus. (top photo).  The mural is painted on the side of DiPasquale's Italian grocery, a fixture in the Highlandtown district of Baltimore since 1914.  A culinary treasure.

Sunset a couple of days ago.  There have been some beauties lately.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.