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Upon These Rocks . . .

(Winter 2006 Newsletter)

850 truckloads of rocks and boulders such as these had to be removed from the Chapel site

Military historians are fond of saying that no battle plan survives the firing of the first bullet. An exaggeration to be sure, but one gets the point.
The fate of a “construction battle plan” is somewhat similar. It can be tested only when work actually commences at a given site; the best laid plans and timelines are subject, therefore, to unforeseeable realities, especially in the excavation phase of a construction project.

The first phase of construction on Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel has been no exception. Due to the vagaries of California geology, it has been necessary to remove an inordinate number of rocks (and numerous hefty boulders) from the construction site. Instead of an estimated 200 truckloads of rock, the final tally came to a staggering 850 truckloads that had to be excavated and carted away from the site for compaction. Then, a correspondingly large number of truckloads of dirt had to be brought in to the site, prolonging this phase of the project by several weeks.

The good news is excavation and grading have now been completed and the pad has been certified. Construction is now moving full-steam ahead and should proceed more or less according to plan.

-- Qtrly Newsletter, Winter 2006