Throughout this past Saturday a seemingly endless convoy of cement trucks made their way towards Yonge and Bloor streets in the heart of Toronto's uptown for the long awaited “Big Pour” at Great Gulf Homes’ flagship One Bloor East project. From 5:30 AM until 5:45 PM, Tucker Hi-Rise Construction crews worked tirelessly on the 3,600 cubic metre concrete pour, forming the foundation raft slab on which the 75-storey condominium tower will rest. In the days preceding the pour, rebar was laid out in a densely arranged configuration, and in the image below, taken by UT Forum member androiduk, construction workers can be seen easily walking across the result, an impressive lattice of steel.

Bed of rebar awaiting concrete pour, image by androiduk

In the early hours of Saturday morning, traffic was restricted to one lane in each direction on both Yonge and Bloor streets as the first wave of cement trucks arrived on the scene to begin the pour. The massive foundation slab required just over 400 truckloads of cement, which was poured continuously throughout the day. The top level of the Hayden Street parking garage, just south of Bloor, has become a popular publicly accessible vantage point since work began on One Bloor East last year, and these photos and videos taken from this vista throughout the day paint a good picture of how Saturday’s events unfolded.

The pour well underway at 9 AM, several boom pumps can be seen pouring concrete, image by philofra

Concrete starting to fill the north side of the site - 1:45PM, image by Jack Landau

Close up of concrete being poured for One Bloor's foundation, image by Jack Landau

Concrete trucks lined up waiting to unload at 3:45 PM, image by Jack Landau

Progress of the pour at 3:45 PM, image by Jack Landau

Progress of the pour at 3:45 PM, image by Jack Landau

With the foundation now in place, the long-awaited Hariri Pontarini-designed tower is set to rise to the now-confirmed height of 257.3 metres, or 843.94 feet above the Yonge and Bloor intersection.

For more information and renderings, check out the UT dataBase page linked below. To join in the discussion, visit the related forum thread here.

Related Companies:  Baker Real Estate Incorporated, Bass Installation, Cecconi Simone, DesignAgency, First Capital, Great Gulf, Hariri Pontarini Architects, Isotherm Engineering Ltd., Jablonsky, Ast and Partners, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Kramer Design Associates Limited, L.A. Inc., Rebar Enterprises Inc, TUCKER HIRISE Construction