Crystalline Silica Training
September 20, 2019
The Milford Team Working Full Steam Ahead
October 7, 2019
The Shaw Lane Power Plant, built-in 1948, is being revitalized into a state-of-the-art STEM Teaching and Learning Facility on Michigan State University’s campus. Once completed, the facility will span 170,000 square-feet, holding classes and laboratories in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Ideal Contracting’s scope of work for this project included the fabrication, detailing, and erection of structural steel. The existing Shaw Lane Power Plant building required new structural floor framing to three levels of the building as well as a new classroom building addition. The two-story classroom addition totaled 9,500 square-feet. The Power Plant’s existing silo, a coal ash storage bunker, will be transformed into study areas for students to utilize. Finally, a second-floor addition was completed in the adjacent Annex building, the old steam turbine house.
Before work could begin on the existing Power Plant, (3) four-story tall boilers had to be removed. Due to the amount of asbestos removal required, the boiler demolition took longer than expected. To maintain the schedule, Ideal Contracting worked closely with the customer and re-sequenced the steel installation to ensure the demolition and steel installation could be completed simultaneously.
Another challenge that the team faced was the weight restriction to the building’s first floor. The existing floor capacity was restricted by the Engineer of Record (EOR) severely impacting the type of equipment that could be used to install the upper-level floor framing. Ideal hired a third-party engineering firm to perform a structural analysis and re-rate the floor capacity based on the actual concrete compressive strength and existing steel framing conditions. The floor capacity was re-rated to accommodate the necessary equipment to safely install the upper-level floor framing.
Ideal Contracting’s portion of the project was completed at the end of October of 2019. The newly renovated facility is scheduled to open August of 2020.
