Pouring the Mikvah
Once the forms were complete, our Mikvah supervising rabbi, Rabbi Yirmiyah Katz from Brooklyn, came up to supervise the pouring of the Mikvah. The crew lowered the forms into the outer cradle using a Gantry crane (to hoist them up, roll them over, and lower them via a pully). You can see a time lapse video of lowering the main form here. Next, they braced the forms against the ceiling using two by fours, to prevent the forms from rising with the cement.
Three cement trucks came and the Mikvah was poured in two and a half hours! Rabbi Katz was amazed and please at how quickly our workers got it poured. They vibrated it to get the air bubbles out, smoothed it down, and let it set overnight. The next morning they came back to strip the forms, and begin a two week water curing (filling all the pits with water to slow down the curing process, which strengthens the concrete). And now we have a mikvah pool! You can watch some of the cement pouring and vibrating here.
Only a few days left in 2011! Get in your tax-deductible charitable donations today! Please support our mikvah project, with either a one-time donation (using the progress widget to the right) or recurring monthly donations (above the progress widget). For dedication opportunities, please contact Rabbi Rabinowitz. All donations are tax deductible.
The forms all lowered into the cradle.
The forms braced against the ceiling with two by fours - without those, the forms would float like a boat!
Rabbi Rabinowitz throwing the first shovel of cement into the mikvah.
Congregation Beth Israel's President, Jay Lamport, throwing the second shovel of cement into the mikvah.
Cement pouring out of the cement pump hose, snaked down to the bottom so the force of the cement wouldn't damage the rebar or the copper bonding wire.
The mikvah almost completely poured!
The mikvah all poured and vibrated down flat.
The cement all smoothed down nicely. Matrix Concrete does quality work, and they take pride in their product.
The mikvah, all dried, with the forms stripped. The bor zeri'ah and bor hashaka (the two side rainwater collection pits) are on the left, bottom and top respectively. The bor ha'tevila is in the center and the bor geshamim hatachton is on the bottom right.