Renovation on the Salt Lake City Temple officially reached an important milestone this week as concrete was poured for the temple’s new foundation, a local news article reported.
Over 150 concrete trucks arrived at the temple to pour the concrete around the west tower. The concrete will cover the footings now a part of the earthquake-resistant foundation.
“We’ve been preparing to build this foundation for three years,” Andy Kirby, director of historic temple renovations, told KSL.com. “This concrete creates the footing for the new foundation for the Salt Lake Temple.”
The concrete is stronger than most—its strength is 8,000 pounds per square inch. By comparison, most driveaways have a psi of 2,500. Once the concrete is poured, base isolators will be installed. These will separate the temple from the earth. The video below describes how the temple will survive earthquakes through this process.
“The seismic work is what we call our critical path. We can’t do other things until it’s finished,” Kirby said. “So, yes, I would say we’re 50%, because we’ve done all the preparation. Now we’re building up out of the ground. Today’s a milestone in that process, where we’re casting the west footing. The west footing goes all the way around the three west spire towers of the Salt Lake Temple.”
In March 2023, the Church announced that the completion date of the temple had been pushed back to 2026.
