Phase I construction involves clearing the site, bringing in utilities and pouring the pad. This process was begun on November 2 by moving the Marching Band Tower further East. Please click the thumbnail to see the full-sized image.

After fencing off the main planetarium site north of San Ramon Avenue, workers also fence off the area between the Science Building and the Satellite Student Union to prepare for trenching and installation of utility lines from the campus to the site.

When large telescopes are used for the first time, the event is called "First Light." On November 6, after many delays, ground was finally broken by large dirt-moving vehicles. We called this event "First Dirt." When you consider that our official groundbreaking ceremony was way back on March 21, this was quite exciting. For more First Dirt pictures, click on
FirstDirt02][ FirstDirt03][ FirstDirt04][ FirstDirt05]



The panorama above shows the site from the Northeast corner looking Southwest. The Science Building is seen on the left and the construction shack is just to the right of this picture. Click on the picture to see the full-sized image.

Now the earth is being moved in earnest. The sod has been removed from the place where the foundations of the planetarium will go. On the left, the northern edge of one of the utilities trenches is being dug. Click on the picture to see the full-sized image.

South of San Ramon Avenue, the soil from the utilities trench is loaded into a truck.

An unforeseen small water main is encountered by the backhoe. I later heard that the backhoe carefully excavated around the line without breaking it. Then one of the workmen discovered the hard way that its walls were much thinner than they thought. When he stepped on it, the main broke, treating him to an impromptu soaking.

For additional pictures of dirt being moved this day, click on A panoramic shot from the third floor of the Science Building. This window is now the site of the live Web Camera that can be accessed from the Planetarium Web Site.

For more pictures of dirt being moved, click on [Pan3rd2] [Scraping] [Scraping2] [Scraping3] [Trench] [Trench2] [Trench3]

To run the utilities under San Ramon Avenue a special underground borer is brought in and positioned with the large crane you will see in several of the pictures below. Click on the picture to see a full-sized image.

For those of you who enjoy crossing your eyes to see three-dimensional images, try clicking on [ TrenchSP] or [ BackhoeSP]
Additional pictures from the wonderful world of trenching and boring may be found by clicking on [ ThirdFl01] [ Trenching] [ Trenchwall1] [ Trenchwall2] [ Trenchwall3] [ Trenchwall4]

November 18 was a beautiful Fall day. Click on the picture to see the full-sized panorama shot standing just South of San Ramon Avenue by panning from West to North across the building site. The crane used to maneuver the boring apparatus is prominently featured.

On November 18 the crew was busily creating the little jog in the utilities trench that runs from the Science Building toward a junction near the Satellite Student Union. (See the map at the top of this web page.) This picture is a mosaic of twelve digital camera shots and is 494K in size, so be patient if you have a slow modem and click on the picture to see the full-sized image.

For additional pictures of this operation, click on [ PipelinePan] [ PipeWeld] [ ScienceEndPan]

Last week we learned that the soil under the planetarium site had become saturated with water, making it impossible to place a foundation on it. The solution is to remove all of the wet dirt and replace it with dirt that can be compacted properly. In this picture you can see the standing water in the foreground. In the background the dirt is already being removed with a large tracked excavator.

Here we can see the entire site, with the dirt removal in progress. This will be moved to a location on the Fresno State Farm to be used as excellent soil.

For additional pictures of this operation, click on [ WetDirt02] [ WetDirt03] [ WetDirt04] [ WetDirt05] [ WetDirt06]



After the excavator had completed its work, a layer of Geotek was rolled out and laid down. Next truckloads of aggregate were smoothed out over the base of the site. The final layer will be fill dirt from a ponding basin that won't have the squishy water problems that the old dirt had. We are now ready to compact the soil and lay the actual foundations of the Planetarium. Please click on the thumbnail pictures to see the full-sized images.

The layers of good topsoil from a ponding basin are put down and compacted by driving trucks and rollers over the layers as each is added to the site.



By the end of the day several layers were in place. The final layers were put on the following day, December 9. Click on the thumbnails to see the full picture.

Today a deep pit was dug on the South end of the site for installation of the electrical vault that will serve the planetarium. This image was taken from the Third Floor WebCam set up in the Science building by Roger Key and John Beckman of the Physics Department. (The webcam was removed after the Planetarium was completed.)

For an additional picture of this operation, click on [Vault01] and for an animated picture of the digging click on [Vault Animation]. If you look carefully at the animation you can see how deep the backhoe must go to reach the bottom of the pit.

To refresh your memory on where everything is, the electrical vault hole was dug yesterday and now has yellow tape around it. This morning another trench was dug between Science and the Satellite Student Union. This afternoon more trenching is being dug on the Western edge of the site, as shown in the picture above.

Reporting on these cuts in the ground may not be all that exciting, but without power and sewage we would have very unhappy audiences at our planetarium shows. Stay tuned for water, gas, telephone and computer lines! Even starships need life support and data systems as well as photon torpedoes.

Today after watching the backhoe dig yet another trench at the southwest corner of the site, I noticed a truck with big concrete boxes and a crane pull into the site. It was time to put in the Electrical Vault.

For an animated picture of this operation, click on [VaultAnim-736K]. (After this picture loads, you may want to click the Reload button on your browser to repeat the animation.) See Dec 15 above for a key to the vault location. They first lowered in a concrete slab floor, then two wall sections as shown in the picture to the right, then a cover, and finally a manhole access.

As I type this they are continuing to trench both East and West of the Electrical Vault.

Today a bit more trenching is still going on at the Southern border of the site, but most of the action seems to be connecting and laying the pipe that hooks to the electrical vault. Please click the image above for a larger view.

I believe we may have another first. The first concrete I've seen was poured on the site today. You can see the truck at the lower right of the webcam site picture pouring concrete into one of the trenches coming from the Electrical Vault. There is also work going on in the center of the site as they prepare to place the foundations of the building itself. Click on the image to see a larger picture.

For additional pictures of this operation, click on [Concrete Truck]

Yes, Virginia, that white stuff on the ground is SNOW. According to this morning's Fresno Bee ( Believe it: It's snow), this is the first official snowfall we have had here since 1975 when a "trace" was reported. The snow even arrived at an astronomically significant time. Today is the first day of Winter. Undaunted, your fearless and dedicated construction crew is already hard at work this morning. Please click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

Happy 1999. School is back in session but not a lot has been happening at the Planetarium site since late December. Most of Phase 1 has been completed, which brings utilities to the site. With the snow and the rain I'm sure the construction workers were just as glad that Phase 2 was not quite ready to go yet.


My daughter Kirsten came home from grad school over the holidays. I took her out to see how the Planetarium was coming along that we had talked about back when she was in high school. Things may be happening more slowly than we would like, but it is gratifying to see the project actually taking shape.

The planetarium committee has been hard at work. In this shot taken on February 8, 1999, Gary Wilson from Facilities Planning was briefing us on the new cost projections for Phase 2. Once this all gets sorted out we can finally begin work on the building itself. A lot of people are involved in making this happen, so we just have to be patient until all the ducks are put in a row.