Concrete Construction: Methods and Costs — Key Ideas to Explore

Cost Breakdown as a Structural Element

The book treats cost data not as an appendix but as integral to construction method. In the Peekskill Tunnel, the total of $1,948 per cubic yard is dissected into 14 line items, from cement ($2.951) to hardware ($0.009). This granularity allows the reader to see how material choices (e.g., 1-3-6 concrete for portal walls vs. 1-2-4 for lining) affect the bottom line. The authors also include indirect costs like coal for boilers and oil for engines, reflecting a whole-job perspective.

This approach is consistent with the preface's claim that the book gives cost data 'more thoroughly analyzed than they can be found elsewhere.' The tunnel example shows that formwork lumber—mixing platforms, ribs, lagging, sheathing, plates, sills, studs, braces—is itemized separately, totaling over $1.50 per cubic yard, nearly as much as cement. Such detail would help a contractor estimate not just materials but also the reuse potential of forms.

Sequencing and Formwork Logistics

The Peekskill Tunnel description reveals a carefully orchestrated sequence. Side wall forms were built in 12-ft. panels with 4×6-in. plates and sills, 4×4-in. studs at 3-ft. centers, and 2-in. dressed and matched spruce sheeting. Four panels were set at the tunnel midpoint, braced to the track, while wheelbarrow runways on bents fed concrete from platforms at each end. After 24 hours, the first panels were struck and moved ahead, allowing continuous progress.

Arch forms were erected for 96 ft. at the center, using 12-ft. lagging so sections could be taken down and moved ahead nine at each end. The arch ring was waterproofed with six layers of tar paper in hot tar immediately after completion. Notably, the arch centers were struck after only 90 hours—a rapid turnover that required jacking down because the forms stuck fast. This detail underscores the tension between speed and form adhesion, a practical challenge the book addresses.

The Builder's Viewpoint vs. Designer's Knowledge

The preface explicitly distinguishes this book from works on cement testing, physical properties, or reinforced concrete design. The authors argue that 'no designer of concrete structures can be a really good designer without having a profound knowledge of methods of construction and of detailed costs.' This positions the book as a bridge between theory and practice, though it does not claim to teach design.

In the tunnel example, the builder's viewpoint is evident in decisions like using back forms of 1-in. hemlock and filling the space behind with spalls, rather than concreting back to the rock. The cost table includes 'backing boards' as a separate item. The authors also note that arch lagging was laid in 4-ft. lengths at the crown to facilitate shoveling, a detail that would matter to a foreman but might escape a designer. The book thus offers a lens into the trade-offs and improvisations of early 20th-century concrete construction.

Readers should approach this book as a primary source on construction practice circa 1908, not as a theoretical text. The cost data, while specific to the period, reveal enduring principles of project management: the importance of formwork reuse, the interplay between labor and material costs, and the need for detailed record-keeping. The Peekskill Tunnel example, with its 1,948 cubic yards and 14 cost categories, exemplifies the authors' method. For modern engineers, the book offers historical perspective on how concrete construction evolved from craft to science.

Holding this 1908 concrete manual, I remember my grandfather’s cellar workshop, where his own hands measured and planned, building things that lasted. Mission Furniture: How to Make It, Part 3 — Story, Setting & Ideas once gave me that same quiet sense of purpose—craft as a form of patience, where the cost is counted in care, not just hours, and the dust settles into something solid.