CATFISH HABITAT UNIT FABRICATION

Fabrication of the catfish habitat units. Our youths worked with pros to learn how to place concrete, vibrate to ensure voids are eliminated, and ultimately taking the forms off to get them ready for delivery.

People make bird houses, bat houses, and mason bee houses, but have you heard of catfish houses?

UHC had the opportunity to work with Friends of the Chicago River to design, engineered and manufactured catfish habitat units that were placed in the Chicago River to promote wildlife diversity. In order to do so, we conducted several design meetings to figure out the habits of catfish, materials that will hold up in the long run, and how to make them as efficiently as possible, with both material cost and available labor in mind. With the help of our usual suspects (Asimow Landscaping and Ozinga Concrete), we manufactured a few hundred units over the course of few months and many concrete-filled weekends.

We were also able to use these work sessions as educational opportunities. Our youth worked side-by-side with professional tradesmen to experience fast-paced concrete placing (once the truck arrives, it is GO time!). They also learned about physical properties of concrete and how it performs as a structural unit with the addition of rebars.

See the catfish habitat units featured here.