Construction Begins at the Sikh National Center

Houston, USA: Sikh National Center, Inc. (SNC) of Houston held special Ardaas (Sikh Prayer) on Friday, August 2 at 3:15 p.m., as Turner’s Construction’s crane erected the 1st member of structural steel on its previously constructed foundation and slab. About 100 Sikhs participated in the ceremony which was held on a hot Friday afternoon. SNC had awarded a $2.3 million contract to complete the dry phase of its two story, 38,000 square feet Phase I Building (Gurdwara and Langar Hall). The first step for this unique religious project was to prepare the hundreds of steel fabrication drawings and then custom cut hundreds of steel members. All the members were marked to fit in their places in the big puzzle on site, as designed by SNC’s structural engineers. Once hundreds of these unique pieces were hauled by truck to SNC’s site, Turner was ready to erect them all, one by one, as it did the first one on August 2.

As the above photo shows, about 25% of the structural steel has already been erected and the remaining 75% will be erected over the next several weeks. After much time and money was invested by SNC on the building, the necessary infrastructure projects, which were largely invisible, has now entered the highly visible stage of construction.

Three big truck loads of joists and decking metal are being delivered to SNC in August. By the end of August 2013, quite a bit of the horizontal 2nd floor and roof joists and decking will be installed.

In September, concrete will be poured on the top of the decking to build the 2nd floor and the roof on top of the building. God willing, the dry in phase of the Phase I project will be finished before the end of 2013.

As you travel on North Beltway 8 near Fairbanks North Houston, see Houston’s new landmark grow each week! You are always welcome to take a quick exit and watch this construction up close.

Source: SikhNet.Com