# Well, there's your problem right there--you filled the equipment room with concrete! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 23, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-theres-your-problem-right-there-you-filled-the-equipment-room-with-concrete/679546 "2014-01-23T18:46:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-theres-your-problem-right-there-you-filled-the-equipment-room-with-concrete/679546/21 "2014-01-24T13:59:49Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > Apparently they used sugar (just a spoonful?) to fix it: [Victoria line cement ‘flooding’ fixed: Workers used sugar to stop spilled concrete from setting | The Independent | The Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/victoria-line-cement-flooding-fixed-workers-used-sugar-to-stop-spilled-concrete-from-setting-9082206.html) Ingenious! I wonder how the company decided that VINCI BAM Nuttall was a name for the ages? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-theres-your-problem-right-there-you-filled-the-equipment-room-with-concrete/679546/22 "2014-01-24T18:48:35Z")
I’m amazed that they were able to resolve the problem completely in about sixteen hours. Over here, I’d expect the electricians would be hollering at the concrete guys, who were in turn reaming out the carpenters who built the forms, and while they’re all yelling, someone else is doing an environmental impact study to determine how to remediate the mess, including testing the concrete for asbestos and lead. Someone else is poking around to determine who’s crimially or civilly liable so they can be sued, and by now, the concrete has set. I used to work with a guy who said most concrete truck drivers carried a few ten pound bags of sugar for emergency use if the pour was canceled while en route to the jobsite, or they got stuck in traffic, etc. The sugar slows the curing process considerably, so they don’t wind up with a mixer full of solid concrete before they’re able to dump it. Fortunately they weren’t pouring the ultra fast-set mix known as cartoon concrete. That’s the kind that can be poured, floated, and able to carry auto traffic in an hour or two. Good stuff for making quick fixes to highways. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-theres-your-problem-right-there-you-filled-the-equipment-room-with-concrete/679546/23 "2014-01-27T14:28:42Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > Apparently they used sugar (just a spoonful?) to fix it: [Victoria line cement ‘flooding’ fixed: Workers used sugar to stop spilled concrete from setting | The Independent | The Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/victoria-line-cement-flooding-fixed-workers-used-sugar-to-stop-spilled-concrete-from-setting-9082206.html) From that article, a slightly different take on how it happened: > [@](#): > > The source told the Evening Standard: “ . . . They were pumping in concrete for an escalator tunnel down to the new platform and there must have been a crack or a hole. I don’t think any of the newspaper folks are really interested in how it happened, just that it did. There would be a lot more concrete being pumped if they were installing a tunnel than if they were “filling voids” and therefore more pressure behind it, if it found a hole. And still no idea how big that area was. They always show the same small bank of equipment. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-theres-your-problem-right-there-you-filled-the-equipment-room-with-concrete/679546/24 "2014-01-27T19:58:10Z")
It looks like the cement barely reached the bottom-most row of relays. In other words, they were very lucky. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-theres-your-problem-right-there-you-filled-the-equipment-room-with-concrete/679546.md?page=1)