Friday, June 21, 2013

Medallions Unveiled for Caldecott Tunnel Fourth Bore Openings

Six concrete medallions, designed by young artists to adorn the Caldecott Tunnel Fourth Bore east and west portals, were unveiled today in the Bay Area plant where they were fabricated. The six hexagonal designs were selected from among more than 300 entries in the Art Deco-themed Medallion Design Competition in 2012, which was open to students in grades K-12 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

The artists and their families were invited to see their creations extracted from the concrete molds created by Architectural Facades Unlimited in Gilroy. Winning designers were Nuala Gorshow and Aoife Gorshow, sisters, and Ellina Bartholomew Couts of Alameda County, and Daniell McCann, Chaya Tong and Penelope Watson of Contra Costa County.

Videographer Mark Jones was on hand to film the first viewing of the medallions. See Photographer Karl Nielsen’s description of the fabrication process below.

The Caldecott Fourth Bore Project represents a partnership between the Federal Highway Administration, the California Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and the Alameda County Transportation Commission to build a two-lane fourth tunnel bore north of the existing three Caldecott tunnels. The fourth bore is slated to open to traffic in late 2013.

— Georgia Lambert

Owner Frank Bracken of Architectural Facades Unlimited (AFU) oversees the creation of thousands of molds every year at AFU. Mr. Bracken started his business in the 1980s in his home garage as a one-man operation. Now he has a large facility in Gilroy with nearly 60 employees helping to facilitate every step of the process. Most of his employees have been working at AFU for 20 years or more.

Although the original creation of the foam mold made for the six winning medallion designs was done by a labeled artist, there was no lack of artistry in creating the mold that would create the final casting.

In a facility where hundreds of castings are done each day, one would expect to see speed and quantity to be the first priority. But watching the workers lay clay down over the foam mold wasn't like watching the fabrication of something on a production line; it was like watching the creation of something in an artist’s studio. These workers have developed incredible skill and attention to detail. They used clay sculpting tools to artfully and carefully lay clay down over the foam mold and fill in any gaps that could result in a leak later. Each worker's hands had the look of experience and years of manual labor. Their skin was dry, cracked and dusty from the porous clay absorbing every last bit of oil from the skin; their fingernails were worn down, filled with clay and dirt. Often with no gloves or tools, they pushed their fingers over the clay with well-practiced and thoughtful sculpting movements. The workers quickly created a smooth half-inch thick, evenly contoured layer of clay over the foam medallions.

Once the workers were finished covering each medallion with clay, the entire table was rolled into the next room where the glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) was sprayed on by the one employee at AFU skilled enough to spray the thick goopy liquid onto the molds. The GFRC was sprayed quickly and dried fast enough that the man spraying the material was never able to stop. In one ongoing dance the man with the spray gun covered all six medallions with a thick glass fiber coating that would become the backing for the mother mold.

Clay was carefully laid over the foam medallion and, using clay sculpting tools, workers carefully pressed the clay into every crack and crease of the form so that the GFRC would lay smoothly and not leak out.

— Karl Nielsen