Week 3 – Walbridge UofM LSA First Floor Renovation – Miranda Zamora

This week I’ve been in the field observing how the iron workers detail the steel.  By detail I mean, welds, bolts, etc. This is an important job for the detailer and it is given on a drawing that shows what pieces to connect together. One of the ways the detailers connect the beams is by using a moment connection which is a design strength to make sure that the steel stays strongly connected. This connection is important so the beam doesn’t rotate and stays rigid.
These connections are used to avoid seismic waves such as an earthquake. Moment connections are famously seen in taller structures like in New York. In a nutshell, a moment connection is a bolt and weld connected to a beam as it can be shown in the picture below.
Although it is super important to keep these large chunks of metals into place and know the proper connections, another important factor is safety! Iron workers are constantly climbing up in the structure so it is imperative to have 100% tie off onsite. This means that iron workers must be tied at all times while on top of a structure even if it is just for a small job that needs to get done. The second picture below shows the structure and a couple of iron workers using the proper tie off technique.

The red rectangle shows a moment connection.

Moment connections can be found all over the structure.

It’s been really cool so far to learn about how structures are built and see in drawings every step taken to making a beautiful building. I can’t wait to see the final product of this project!