6 replies to this topic

[CH3skier]

So how long does a tower foundation have to cure after being pured before a tower can be attached to it?

This post has been edited by CH3skier: 17 October 2017 - 06:49 PM

[vons]

Depends on the mix, if needed a high early strength mix can be used, so a day or two

[Lift Dinosaur]

...but typically ... at a 2500-3000 psi yeild...5-7 days.
As vons stated, cure time can be accelerated with additives.
Dino

[CH3skier]

Thank you both for the answers! Just seeing concrete pouring videos from various lift projects recently and thinking it's going to be a while waiting for the curing process.

[Kelly]

Adding to other posters good information – most towers and terminals would stand all by themselves if no cable weight or tension was applied.
In simplistic engineering terms the concrete acts like the sand at the base in tackling dummies.
 Tackle-dummy.jpg (95.7K)
Number of downloads: 8

[CH3skier]

Kelly, on 20 October 2017 - 07:15 AM, said:

Adding to other posters good information – most towers and terminals would stand all by themselves if no cable weight or tension was applied.
In simplistic engineering terms the concrete acts like the sand at the base in tackling dummies.
Tackle-dummy.jpg

Thank you for the infomation Kelly!

[_litz]

As noted above, it depends entirely on the mixture used.

Most construction projects use concrete that takes days (like stated above, 5-7 days) to fully cure.

Sometime you can get a faster cure, for example, when they rebuilt I-85 in Atlanta after the bridge fire last spring, they used a fast-cure concrete (basically like QuikCrete at Home Depot, but in vastly larger quantities), and rebuilt the entire bridge (six lanes per side x 300 feet long) in 41 days.

If you wanted to spend the money, there's no reason you can't pour a foundation for a lift that'll cure just as fast.