Chapter 173: Bamboo-Reinforced Concrete

The corresponding solution was to treat the bamboo reinforcement. The chemical plant in Bopu was already capable of producing wood tar and coal tar. These two products were quite ancient in the chemical industry.

Using a simple fractional distillation apparatus, many different chemical products could be distilled from them. Recently, due to the need for steelmaking, the metallurgy department had been coking coal in Bopu, accumulating a considerable amount of coal tar. Besides being used by the chemical plant to make some tar incendiary bombs and to coat the utility poles along the highway, this black and dirty coal tar was also used for anti-corrosion in shipbuilding. A lot of it was left, stored in ceramic jars. In addition to coal tar, the chemical plant also received a large amount of wood tar produced during the charcoal making process at the wood processing plant. The temporary warehouses were filled with it everywhere.

Ji Situi couldn’t process it for the time being because the fractional distillation tower had not yet been installed, and the distilled products needed to be washed with acid and alkali. However, with so much stuff piled up in the sheds, not to mention the smell it emitted, someone had to be assigned to guard it—both the locals and the transmigrators had their eyes on these things. The natives’ ideas were better, basically preparing to use it as fuel or to waterproof their boats. The transmigrators had their own various strange ideas, and some of the dangerous things created by the chemical half-wits could make Ji Situi break out in a cold sweat.

Hearing Mei Wan’s request for help, Ji Situi expressed great welcome—it was better for someone to use it than for no one to use it. Coal tar, the most basic anti-corrosion material, was more than enough to treat bamboo reinforcement.

Mei Wan first soaked the prepared bamboo reinforcement in wood tar. This process was not only for coating with tar, but Mei Wan also hoped that through this method, the dry bamboo reinforcement could absorb the creosote in the wood tar, so that the material would no longer absorb water and would have a certain anti-corrosion and insect-proof effect.

After soaking for a few days to ensure that the bamboo reinforcement was fully soaked, it was taken out and then evenly coated with coal tar—of course, in the modern world, this treatment method would be much more complicated, but the transmigrators’ chemical capabilities were still relatively limited, so they could only use the simplest process.

After the treatment was completed, the bamboo reinforcement itself had to be physically improved to be suitable as a raw material for bamboo-reinforced concrete. One of the disadvantages of bamboo is that its surface is too smooth, which not only makes it difficult to fix when tying the bamboo reinforcement, but also makes it easy for the concrete to move and bubble up when bonded. The method adopted was to change the shape of the bamboo itself by cutting notches in the bamboo material. Another method was to wrap iron wire around the bamboo reinforcement.

Fortunately, although the steel reserves of the metallurgy department could not supply rebar, it was more than enough to supply 18-gauge iron wire. Processing iron wire was very convenient. The wrought iron rods were placed on a steel template and drawn and stretched multiple times by a power machine. The process was extremely simple, and the consumption of raw materials was not much. Hearing that the construction company was going to trial-produce bamboo-reinforced concrete precast panels, the metallurgy department immediately expressed its strong support and promised to supply as much iron wire as needed—anyway, various departments needed iron wire recently: Lingao Telecom needed to lay telephone lines, and the Ministry of Light Industry was going to produce sewing needles.

The entire construction engineering company was put to work tying rebar. This work had a certain technical content. If it weren’t for Mei Wan’s background on construction sites, he would have had a hard time managing it. What’s more, what they were tying was not rebar, but smooth bamboo reinforcement. A few people, along with several construction workers commonly used by the construction company, wrapped and wound the bamboo strips again and again. The only reference was a few blurry printed pictures. None of the transmigrators had ever done this work before, and soon someone’s hands were bleeding, honorably wounded.

“Good heavens, this is much more tiring than rebar,” Yan Quezhi complained.

Bingfeng nodded. “This thing saves material but not labor. And the strength is discounted. If it was really as good as they say, why wasn’t it promoted?”

Mei Wan also regretted it a little at this time, but he couldn’t show it. “Right now, we’re solving the problem of having something or nothing. We even mix our own concrete. In the past, we would have just called a commercial concrete company for a few tanker trucks, right?”

The first precast panel was tested after three days of curing, and it proved that it could be used as a lightweight floor slab. This result was very encouraging.

“But, believe it or not, it’s best not to use this thing for load-bearing components,” Bingfeng was still a little nervous.

Although that was said, this substitute was immediately put into production—Bairen City was in the midst of a new wave of construction, and houses were being built everywhere. Having precast concrete components was a great convenience for the construction company. Mei Wan immediately conducted comprehensive training for the native construction workers in the company, teaching them how to tie rebar and make precast panels. Soon, the first batch of cement floor slabs was put into the construction of the “New Countryside” and the stadium.

Due to the use of machinery, the progress of the entire project was very fast. After all, the amount of earthwork a single excavator could do in an hour would take dozens of workers a whole day. As for the rammed earth work, Mei Wan also adopted a model of using road rollers for compaction and manual ramming in parallel, working through the night. At night, a dozen gas lamps and countless torches were lit, illuminating the construction site. The entire staff worked in two shifts, day and night. The construction site was filled with the roar of machines and the clamor of people day and night.

“This project really has the atmosphere of a major campaign,” Bingfeng said, dragging his tired body back to the shade of the project command post after finishing a section of the project. The temperature outside was less than 10°C, but he was only wearing a T-shirt covered in dust and mud. He had only slept four or five hours a day for the past three or four days, and his eyes were red.

“Have some Wanglaoji,” Yan Quezhi brought over a large plastic bottle filled with dried grass tea brewed according to a recipe taught by Nanhai—although the transmigrator canteen had been handed over to the General Office, it was still the original team from the agriculture department at work.

“I’d rather drink plain boiled water than this stuff,” Bingfeng shivered at the smell of the dried grass tea. This thing was not like the canned tea from another time, which at least had sugar and flavoring added. Although it tasted strange, it was still acceptable.

Bingfeng gulped down the physiological saline specially prepared by the Ministry of Health, wiped his sweat with a towel, and let out a long sigh.

“I dream of drinking Coke,” he lamented. The small pleasures of another time were now out of reach. He sometimes regretted coming here. Wasn’t it the same as before—no, it was worse than before. At least then, he could drink as much Coke as he wanted.

“Finish one section, then seal it with stone. Don’t wait for the other sections,” Mei Wan commanded on the construction site every day. His eyes were red, and his voice was hoarse.

“Chief Mei is really working hard,” Bingfeng said to Zhuo Tianmin. The latter didn’t answer, looking worried—he hadn’t been home for three days. Although his son was entrusted to Wu De’s woman to look after, he always felt uneasy.

Yan Quezhi said, “I don’t understand. Why is the Commissar in such a hurry for this thing? Is it needed right now?”

“For the military parade, brother.”

“Military parade?”

“Yes, for the natives who are coming to the meeting to see. To show our power,” Bingfeng had been busy finishing the construction of the Army Club recently and knew that the army had been practicing drills since the New Year.

“A waste of money and manpower, a waste of money and manpower,” Yan Quezhi disapproved. “In my opinion, isn’t the expansion of the hydropower station more important? The cost of building such a large grandstand is enough to build two large dams on the Wenlan River.”

“You don’t know how much the Executive Committee has invested in this,” Bingfeng took out a cigarette from his pocket. “Have one.”

“What, you still have cigarettes?” Yan Quezhi took it from his hand and found that it was a hand-rolled cigarette. The rough paper was obviously a local product, but the tobacco inside was golden yellow.

“This is tobacco from the foreign trade company in Macau. I got some and rolled it myself to smoke.”

“I think building this thing is just to satisfy the leadership desire of those heads in the Executive Committee, right? Ma Qianzhu is probably holding back the urge to shout those few words, ‘Hello comrades, you’ve worked hard’.”

“You can’t wrong Commissar Ma on this. It wouldn’t be his turn to shout anyway. Chief Wen is the chairman of the Executive Committee. Commissar Ma would at most shout ‘Please review’—isn’t he the chief of the general staff?”

“I think they are quite united on this matter.”

The two of them were puffing away. To be honest, the taste of this tobacco was very different from cigarettes—it was sun-cured tobacco, not the flue-cured tobacco commonly used in modern cigarettes. Coupled with the rough rolling paper, it was just better than nothing.

“Where did you get this special supply from the foreign trade company? It’s not for sale in the canteen.”

“I live off the mountain,” Bingfeng curled his lip. “This is military tobacco distributed to the army. We’ve been helping the army build a club recently, right? I was in charge on the construction site, so they gave me a lot.”

“You little corrupt official—”

“The army is poor. The navy is the powerful one,” Bingfeng said with some envy, exhaling a puff of smoke and coughing twice. “If I wasn’t seasick, I would have joined the navy too. They live such a good life—”

“We engineers have it tough,” Yan Quezhi looked at Mei Lin, who was sweating profusely while directing workers to lay stones on the construction site, and Li Xiaolv, who was measuring the level with a level, and the others. “Even the women are working on the construction site.”

“You’re quite the gentleman, aren’t you? What, are you interested?”

“Not at all,” Yan Quezhi quickly clarified. “She doesn’t say three words a day besides work, and she has a look on her face like a man owes her five million. Even if I was interested, I wouldn’t be anymore.”

“That’s true,” Bingfeng said. “We need to train some people, at least train up construction workers and technicians, so we don’t have to go to the construction site ourselves all day long.”

“Didn’t they say they’re going to build a school after the big meeting? We should also apply to open a major in the school: a civil engineering department.”

“I don’t need any construction workers. At least they can assign me a secretary, right? To give me a shoulder and leg massage after work, as a benefit.”

“Hehe, there are less than 40 girls graduating from the nursing school. Will it be our turn?”

“Yeah, Chief Mei might get one.”