|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The building process in the year 2004
The last roof, that of the Radio 15 ta’ Awissu Studios
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
During the month of January the work was focused on the uppermost room and the upper section of the curved stairwell. On Febuary 1, Karmenu Caruana began such a task helped by Baskal Ellul, Joseph Ellul, Salvu Bugeja, Anglu Ellul and Mikiel Aquilina. The priority now was the uppermost section of the curved stairwell since this had to be roofed before the rest of the work. In the afternoon, John Spiteri resumed work on the entablature stone blocks. Karmenu Caruana, Peter Caruana, Joe Spiteri and others completed the work referred to above on February 15. This work consisted of the laying of the flat-arches and the preparation and pouring of concrete associated with these arches. The scaffolding related to this part of the work was erected by Karmenu Magro, Martin Formosa, Mikiel Aquilina and others.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
At about this period, Frankie Mifsud and Karmenu Magro initiated work on the lighting system for the stairwell while Joseph Aquilina initiated work on the preparation of surfaces to be finished and plastered. A truck load of sand was delivered to the site for this purpose.
Joe Spiteri looked after the shuttering of the stairwell roof so that it could be poured at a later time. We applaud Joe's courage and ability who, together with other helpers, managed to complete the work in time even if the conditions under which they worked were less than ideal. Peter Caruana laid a course of stone blocks to act as a shutter and retain the concrete that was to be poured later. On Saturday, February 20, the roof of the curved stairwell was poured. This work started at 6.3Oam - the steel netting was lifted onto the roof and placed in position. A concrete mixer and a number of sculptured blocks were also lifted onto the roof.
The first concrete truck arrived at 8.45am and by 10.00a.m. the job in hand was completed. Joe Spiteri supervised the whole operation which was carried out by a number of helpers.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
On February 29, work on the uppermost room resumed together with work on a large stone block which had to be sculptured to fit on top of the upper Doric column closest to the parish church.
On March 1, Peter Caruana worked on the tapered stone blocks of the flat-arches of the three window openings of the uppermost room. A small amount of concrete was poured onto the stairwell roof in order to retain the concrete which will be poured later on top of the roof planks.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Tuesday, March 2, another bandsaw was brought to be used on the rather larger than normal stone blocks of the entablature. That same evening, two more of these entablature blocks were completed.
On Sunday, March 14, Karmenu Caruana, Baskal Ellul, Mikiel Aquilina and Anglu Ellul worked ont he front wall of the uppermost room by laying more stone blocks. They also built the dividing wall consisting of7 inch stone blocks. The tapered pieces of the flat-arches were completed and additional work was carried out on the sculpturing of more cornice blocks.
The following day, Monday, Joe Spiteri placed and shored the shutter beams in position ready for the flat-arches of the window openings. Since the weather was now cooperating, work on the large cornice block was carried out of the roof.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
On Tuesday, March 16, Peter Caruana laid two of the flat-arches while Joseph Spiteri started to dismantle the shuttering of the stairwell roof.
On Friday, March 19, Frans Zerafa and Martin Formosa initiated work on the two flagpole blocks. The size of each block was established and the steel for this project was prepared and cut to size. Frans Zerafa welded together these steel lengths to form the frames which will later be embedded in concrete. Peter Caruana and Baskal Ellul laid the flat-arches of the door opening leading to the roof.
On Saturday, March20, Frans Zerafa completed the flagpole steel frames which were also prepared to be galvanized.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Sunday, March 21, Karmenu Caruana, Mikiel Aquilina, Grezzju Farrugia and Anglu Ellul worked from early that morning till after 4.00p.m. and managed to complete all the walls that involved bricks. Additional work was done on the large stone block. While it was placed in the upright position, the Aquilina brothers, Anthony and Marlon, formed the decorated mutule.
On Saturday, March 27, Frankie Mifsud and Karmenu Magro resumed work on the installation of the stairwell lighting system. The following day, Sunday, the corner cornice block was completed. Karmenu Caruana and his helpers resumed work on the rear wall of the uppermost room which also involved the building of the lift shaft and surrounding area. Grezzju Farrugia and the Aquilina brothers covered the billiard hall floor with material which will, later on, serve as a bed for the finished tiled floor. Joseph Aquilina cleaned the stairwell roof in preparation for plastering and he did more plastering of the stairwell wall proper.
On Tuesday, March 30, the roof plank insoles were poured, the concrete for this work being prepared by our people using the Peter Caruana mixer.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
The following Sunday, Karmenu Caruana and his helpers carried on with the task of building in the vicinity of the lift shaft. Sculpturing of the corner stone that sits between the two facades was now in progress. The following day, Monday, the rest of the insoles were poured.
On the 10th April a large quantity of material was placed in the various levels of the building as a preparation for the flooring of the edifice while Twanny Callus and others prepared the shuttering for the topping of the roof slabs.
During the month of April, the work focused on the sculpturing of the porch entablature.
On May 7, the roof planks of the uppermost room were laid in their final position. This job involved the use of a large crane so as to reach the rear part of the building.
On May 22, more stone blocks were delivered to the site and lifted onto the uppermost roof ready to be laid - this course will act as a retainer for the concrete to be poured directly above the roof planks.
On May 26, a load of larger-than-normal stone blocks was delivered to the site together with an even larger block from the quarry. The latter stone was to be carved into the other cornice corner stone.
Joe Spiteri was now putting up the shuttering of the rest of the roof between the planks while Peter Carnana was laying the rest of the course which will retain the concrete to be poured on top of the planks.
On May 30, work commenced on the sculpturing of the larger stone corner block of the porch entablature. Joseph Aquilina resumed with the plastering of the stairwell wall while his brother, Michael worked on erecting additional scaffolding.
On Saturday, June 5, the roofs of the upper room and the chapel were poured. Work on this part of the project started at 700a.m. and, when it was all over, 24 cubic yards of C25 concrete were used. There were 15 volunteers working incessantly completing the job by 12.30pm.
On June 8, more blocks were delivered to the site from the quarry. Another bandsaw was lifted onto the uppermost roof - this machine helped to facilitate the work of laying the stone on the periphery of the roof of that room. In the days that followed. Peter Carnana resumed with the task of wall building while Salvu Magro and Karmnu Magro modified the scaffolding at the front of the building ready for the laying of the porch entablature blocks.
Karmenu Magro and Frankie Mifsud completed the installation of conduit for the lighting system of the stairwell.
On Sunday 13th June Joseph Aquilina continued with the pointing works in the stairwell and in the same time the corner large slab of the cornice was continued.
Two days after, and exactly two months before the parish feast of St. Mary Joe Zerafa and Peter Caruana with the important support of other volunteers, began to lay the cornice of the secondary facade. These were hauled with the Stephen's winch as these slabs are very heavy to lift.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
During that week Joe Spiteri removed part of the stair's shutter and began the form works of the anchorage of the flag mast of the main facade.
In fact on Saturday 19th June, Frankie Ellul welded a large number of shafts to be employed in the erection of the form works of the mast anchorage concrete block. And in the same time Frankie Mifsud and Carmel Magro continued with the electrical installation in the basement.
On Sunday 20th June the last stone of the secondary facade's cornice layer was finished. This side was laid by Joe Zerafa and a good number of helpers.
On Friday the 25th of June the mast anchorage concrete block was poured with 6 cubic yards of C25 concrete. The small flight of stairs which connect the roof with the radio studios were also poured. The shutter was all done by Joe Spiteri. The finished cornice slabs were houled to the roof from the ground floor by a crane and the Society is thankful for Mangion Bros. of Zurrieq which lent the required apparatus. Afterwards the two large corner stones of the portico cornice were lifted and layed in their place by Joe Zerafa and other helpers.
On the 29th June Peter Carnana and Michael Aquilina laid two courses of the boundary roof walls.
This work was stopped because of the celebration of the village feasts. Hopeful the construction works would be finished by the end of this year so that the internal decoration phase would get in full swing by the first months of 2005.
|
|
|
|
Immediately after the celebration of the most important day of the year, the feast of St. Mary, we wasted no time in resuming work on the construction of the uppermost part of the building. The wish of all of us that the construction work on the building comes to a close was now well within sight -this gave our hard working volunteers the opportunity to turn their attention to the work, still not quite completed, on the entablature, work which was all done manually.
In fact, this work resumed on Sunday, 5th September 2005 when, with the help of Nick Aquilina, sculpturing of the larger stone blocks was resumed by Martin Formosa.
The following week, John Spiteri worked on three large stone blocks while the twins, Marlon and Anthony Aquilina, worked on the grouting of that part of the entablature which was already layed in place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
On Saturday, September 25, the day before the St. Matthew Fair, under overcast skies and rainy conditions, more stone blocks were lifted onto the upper stairwell roof. The finished large blocks of the entablature were also lifted in readiness to be laid in position by Joe Zerafa.
On Sunday, September 26, under the direction of Innocent Centorrino, Martin Formosa and Joe Zerafa laid out the upper front part of the secondary façade. More work was carried out on the entablature, work which had to be suspended later on because of the St Matthew Fair organized for that same evening.
Carmel Magro and Salvu Magro extended the scaffolding onto the upper front of the main facade thereby ensuring additional security during the laying of the entablature.
Joe Zerafa, Michael Aquilina, Anton Aquilina and Joseph Ellul laid in place the cornice of the upper front of the main facade. Martin Formosa worked on the mutuals of two additional large stone blocks which had already been started by John Spiteri. Marlon Aquilina completed the gutta (drops in a row as ornament in the Doric architecture) on the large stone blocks while more work was carried out on the scaffolding.
On Sunday, October 10, sculpturing of the entablature was now completed. It was literally a race against time when two sculpted stone blocks were completed while the drops on four others were also completed. Work was initiated on the uppermost balustrade base and an agreement was reached with the contractor regarding the plastering of the outside supporting walls.
On October 7, a sub-committee for the whole project elected. It consisted of Martin Formosa, Nikola Abdilla, Felic Zerafa, Innocent Centorrino, Joe Spiteri, Carmel Magro (ta' Natt), Carmel Magro (ta' Salvu) , Frankie Mifsud and Michael Aquilina.
On October 9, seven loads of additional stone block were ordered and delivered from the quarry.
During the weeks that followed, work on the upper balustrade was restarted while the whole site was given a thorough cleaning by getting rid of most of the unwanted stone and other waste
Joseph Spiteri carried on with plastering while preparations were being made in connection with the issue of the tenders for the manufacture of the main doors.
Since work by Peter Caruana and his team was well ahead of schedule, Salvu Magro covered the roof of the stairwell with tar in preparation for the pouring of concrete for the roofing Mario Mifsud, Marlon and Anthony Aqnilina worked on the plastering of the Committee Room while Carmel Magro and Frankie Mifsud worked on the installation of the electrical supply in the Radio Room. In the meantime, Joe Spiteri finished the concrete shuttering related to the elevator shaft.
On December 2, the crane lifted eighteen cubic yards of gravel onto the back roofs. This material was leveled ready for the concrete to be poured.
On Saturday, December 4, a number of volunteers among whom there were Felic Zerafa, Anthony and Marlon Aquilina, Salvu Magro, Martin Formosa, Joseph Ellul, Mario Mifsud, Karmenu Borg and others, under the supervision of John and Michael Aquilina, worked relentlessly for seven hours starting at 7.30am on the roof leveling. In the afternoon, the roof was grouted thereby completing the first phase of this particular job.
The following day, Sunday, Joe Zerafa resumed work on the laying of the upper balustrade base. An agreement was reached with the contractors in connection with the job of sanding and smoothing of the walls, a job that got started the following day.
On Monday, Joe Zerafa initiated work on the laying of the two courses overlying the balustrade base on the facade of the building.
|
|
|
|
|
We thank all the voluntary workers mentioned above and more. Because of them not a cent was spent on working hours.
|
|
