Seismic Retrofit Blog

A beast in the rabbi’s office?

The "beast" is the Klemm 702, a 5,000-pound rig brought in to drill holes to place micropiles in the basement to strengthen the foundation. Our basement and other hidden spaces are filled with construction workers making our building safer. Other week #16 work includes the start of ADA accessibility upgrades. The project remains on schedule and on budget.

You can be part of the team that is making our seismic upgrade possible by joining more than 400 donors who have already committed more than $13 million in gifts and pledges. Contact our seismic retrofit campaign co-chairs — Lynn Sedway and David Newman — about how you can join our historic effort and help raise the $3 million we still need to complete this project. 

Congregants Maurice Kamins and Lisa Erdberg  continue to document the project.  This week you can see how Plant’s construction team drilled holes for micropiles in the basement crawl space.   

Shalom,
David Newman, Lynn Sedway and Craig Etlin
Seismic Retrofit Campaign Committee

Meet the beast: the Klemm 702, designed for drilling in tight spaces, arrives at Sherith Israel.

The 5,000-pound beast enters Sherith Israel—all hands on deck.

The beast lumbers down the Hall of History to the rabbi’s office—and not for a bar mitzvah meeting.

These 6” augers will drill through the floor of the rabbi’s office, into the basement and to the foundation. 

Drilling begins inside the rabbi’s office.

The auger descends through the floor, into the crawl space and then to the foundation.

Plant’s construction crew makes sure everything is precisely documented.

Preparing the micropiles which will be used for foundation strengthening.

The micropiles descend from the first floor into the crawl space and down to the foundation.

The beast heads home. Shalom and l’hitra’ot. 

Matt Burdette, our super talented project manager with Plant Construction Company.