Today we are pouring our massive level two transfer slab at One Delisle. Delisle Avenue has been temporarily closed and the first concrete truck arrived at 6 AM. We're currently averaging about 100 m3 per hour. There's also a bit of light rain in Toronto right now, so that should help keep the slab cool. We're a few weeks later than we were initially targeting back in June, but a lot of coordination has gone into this one slab. Our level three slab is also somewhat unique because of the double-height pool space and the gym; but following that, we're on to our "typical" floors. And by "typical", I mean as typical as one gets on a project like One Delisle.

Sometime next month we're going to be pouring a large concrete transfer slab at the second floor of One Delisle. Its function is to take the loads coming down from the entire tower above it and "transfer" them onto new structural elements, before being brought down to our mat foundation at the bottom of the parking garage.

Put differently -- and, as always, I should warn you that I'm not a structural engineer -- a transfer is used whenever you have a change in your structural grid and the loads don't have a straight path down to your foundations. Because whenever this happens, you're now introducing moment forces and those need to be dealt with structurally.

Transfer slabs are relatively common here in Toronto (which isn't the case in every market), but they are expensive and they consume a lot of depth. In the case of One Delisle, our level two transfer slab is 1.8 meters deep and it's going to contain about 1,200 m3 of concrete. (Some of you might also recall that One Delisle's mat foundation is over 4m deep.)

We were reviewing this with the team today and we think that we'll be able to pour about 100 m3 of concrete per hour. That means that this slab will take about 12 hours to pour! This requires a lot of coordination. Neighbors need to be notified, pumps need to be on standby in case of a breakdown, and so on.

Another major consideration is heat. When concrete cures it generates a lot of it. And with a thick slab like this one, I am told that we run the risk of the middle starting to overheat (especially with the hot weather that we've been having lately). The guideline limit is 60 degrees Celsius, so we'll be monitoring it for probably about 1-2 weeks following the pour.

I find these details fascinating. Maybe some of you do too. So once it's poured, I'll share a few photos.