Didn’t They Forget Something?

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

Look closely at this photo. Isn’t that hole missing something? Like a way out for the earth movers down at the bottom? How are they going to get that equipment out? Or will they convert engines into boilers like that childhood picture book that I remember but forgot the name of.

Married, mortgaged, and soon to be a father, Wayan Vota is in the fast lane to mid-life respectability – until the day his brood finds his intimate journal of global traveling and curses him with the ever-eternal reply “I’m gonna be just like you, Dad!”

7 thoughts on “Didn’t They Forget Something?

  1. It is Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

    I’ve been wondering this myself with square 54 … I’m thinking that maybe they will remove them once the cranes are installed – via crane.

  2. I LOVED that book. I, also, can not think of the name of it, but if anyone can I will be elated!

  3. This is common; too heavy to lift by crane. We can build anything but we still haven’t mastered getting out of the hole. Its a fairly dangerous operation that not a lot of people want to tackle.

  4. I passed the construction site today around 2pm and one of the earth movers was sitting half-way up that pile… digging out the dirt around it. I have no idea how they are going to get it out of there.

  5. is this the first building anyone has ever built in DC using modern equipment? i just have a sneaky feeling that the prime contractor might have done this before and that they might have thought about this problem. i dont know though…