ISSUE 13B
B U I L D I N G W I T H T H E A M E R I C A N S P I R I T: P E OP L E
P R OJ E C T S
CO M M U N I T I E S
MARVELS
C H I L D R E N ’ S H O S P I TA L O F M I C H I G A N S P E C I A LT Y C E N T E R - D E T R O I T
CARING FOR COMMUNITY
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by Don Davis
B ui l d i n g I nno v ati v e S o l u t i o n s
The Children’s Hospital of Michigan Specialty Center in Detroit marks the first major expansion for the Detroit Medical Center central campus in nearly 30 years. The Specialty Center is a reflection of the DMC’s commitment to the City of Detroit while continuing to provide the best services in healthcare. Healthcare Haven for the CHILDREN The new, 106,500 square-foot, five-story facility was built to resolve the ongoing overcrowding of young patients accompanied by large families. It includes oversized exam rooms, large waiting areas and a expansive arrival area. The project’s goal was to develop a unique healing environment focused on children’s health, while providing an “at-home” feeling for families receiving extended care. The state-of-the-art facility houses 86 exam rooms, 11 dialysis bays and an on-site satellite pharmacy. Pursuing LEED certification, the building incorporates low-flow faucets, abundant natural light and porous pavement, which reduces the load on storm drains. In addition, the Garden Level of the facility includes automatic retracting/expanding fire-rated walls, which provide two hours of safety in the event of a fire. Architects Shepley Bulfinch, in association with Integrated Design Solutions, designed child-friendly features for the facility: the use of vibrant colors throughout, artwork created by patients and Detroit-area school students, open-area healing gardens, heated television bays with reclining chairs,
2 gymnasiums, and a rock climbing wall. Also, there is no need for boring elevator music – the recorded voice of a 3-year-old child even designates each floor stop! Getting Involved The long awaited, high-profile Specialty Center is a premier facility not only for the DMC, but for the City of Detroit as well. DMC was strongly committed to engaging local businesses, which led to the creation of thousands of jobs. The committed project team, a joint venture of Barton Malow / L.S. Brinker, exceeded DMC’s and the community’s expectations. The owner had set a 30% MBE inclusion goal and the project closed out with 41% minority firm participation! An extensive marketing campaign consisting of numerous outreach workshops and “town hall” events by Barton Malow / L.S. Brinker contributed to the success of the MBE program. More than Challenging Construction Residential housing, a church, school and DMC’s ambulatory route surround the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Specialty Center – Detroit. This location posed significant logistical and safety challenges for the project team. To ensure public safety and minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood, regular community meetings were held to inform residents of road closures and traffic detours. Communication was key in assuring residents that high safety standards were planned and implemented.
WATCH A PROJEC T VIDEO
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S U G A R L A N D S K E E T E R S CO N S T E L L AT I O N F I E L D
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME PLATE by Forrest Brewer
Home to the Sugar Land Skeeters, Constellation Field is a state-of-the-art, multipurpose stadium located in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, Texas. The ballpark’s amenities mimic those of Major League stadiums; featuring premium seating options, 360-degree stadium access and activities such as picnic areas, pool pavilion, carousel, and a children’s play land to create the family friendly venue that the City of Sugar Land envisioned. Constellation Field is built on land once home to the Imperial Sugar Company. The city itself was founded as a sugar plantation (hence the name) and the company’s logo is featured on the city’s seal. Using a Design-Build approach, the joint venture team of Barton Malow and Linbeck combined resources and expertise on the twelve month, fast tracked project. Leveraging Linbeck’s strong relationships with local subcontractors and Barton Malow’s expertise with national sports venue subcontractors, the team created a winning combination of local, skilled, and knowledgeable trades. In total, 95% of the subcontracts were awarded to Sugar Land / Houston area firms.
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This project marks Barton Malow’s second fast track Design-Build project with Tetra Tech Architecture, Walter P. Moore Engineers and Opening Day Partners. Our strong relationships allowed the team to go from conceptual drawings to a complete project in just twelve months. The Design-Build process allowed construction to commence within nine weeks of award providing a completed facility in just over nine months. Integrated collaboration between Designers, Engineers, Builder and Owner utilized 31 different subcontractors, with zero claims. Demonstrating the true benefits of Design-Build delivery, the stadium was turned over to the owner three and half weeks ahead of schedule and $3.5 million under the original budget. Constellation Field commenced its inaugural season with a total attendance of 465,511 and also broke Atlantic League record attendance in the month of September by bringing in more than 22,886 fans during a four game series vs. the Long Island Ducks. Constellation Field was recently awarded two 2013 Landmark Awards for Community Impact & Hospitality/Entertainment from the Houston Business Journal as well as Atlantic League Park of the Year by The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
B ui l d i n g I nno v ati v e S o l u t i o n s
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CONSUMERS ENERGY ROGERS DAM
HURDLING OBSTACLES EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
by Joe Benvenuto
Lightning strikes. Emergency dam spills. Complete evacuation of all materials and equipment. Unforeseen structural instability. Replacement of century-old concrete located underwater. Just another day on site for the Rogers Dam team. Consumers Energy was a pioneer in the development of hydroelectric power early in the 20th Century and was also a leader in the long-distance transmission of high-voltage electricity from Rogers Dam to nearby cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan. Originally built in 1906, Rogers Dam generates up to 6,750 kW of electricity, enough to serve a community of 3,700 people. With demand for renewable energy at an all-time high in the State of Michigan, the need to refresh the dam’s structure for the purpose of safely generating power was equally great. In order to reach the concrete requiring demolition, Barton Malow self-performed the installation of a temporary cofferdam to facilitate dewatering of the spillway. Adding to already challenging conditions, two days into dewatering the team was forced to evacuate the work area due to a nearby lightning strike. The electrical feedback caused plant generators to stop and the pond level to rise past allowable levels, resulting in an emergency dam spill. All dewatering efforts and a portion of our access ramp were lost. As demolition progressed, the team discovered structural instability within the east wall and conditions in the concrete spillway apron and subgrade not shown in the drawings. These factors contributed to a 40% increase in scope. Working with Consumers, our field crew and preconstruction engineers established a recovery plan mitigating the unforeseen conditions in the field. Despite these obstacles, Rogers Dam was completed within the allowable timeframe set by the client and with zero recordable incidents – an exemplary safety record considering the inherent challenges of selfperforming civil work on and adjacent to a major waterway. As a result of this total team effort, Consumers Energy commended Barton Malow on our performance, saying the final product went “above and beyond our expectations.”
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B ui l d i n g I nno v ati v e S o l u t i o n s
Rogers Dam By the Numbers 3,000 Tons of concrete demolished and removed 106 Tons reinforcing steel and 2,349 CY cast-in-place concrete installed One spillway apron section placed per week (300 to 500 CY each) 10,000 Manhours ZERO recordable incidents!
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AMBLER JOHNSTON RESIDENCE HALL
LIVING AND LEARNING Barton Malow and architect Clark Nexsen provided design and construction services for the comprehensive renovations of Ambler Johnston Residence Hall on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus. Originally constructed in 1969, Ambler Johnston is Virginia Tech’s largest residence hall. At 272,019 SF, the hall accommodates 1,206 students and is configured into two wings, commonly referred to as East and West AJ, with a central, four-story connector/crossover. The renovated hall also houses the University’s new Living Learning College. MODERN LIVING The renovation included converting spaces such as the traditional dorm-style bedrooms to new, suite-style bedrooms with private bathrooms, and residential apartments for faculty and graduate staff. New amenities, including teaching labs, a media theater, game room, group kitchens, library, Honors Commons, and a fitness center, were added to
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by Kenton Martin
enliven the sense of community among the students and faculty living in Ambler Johnston. The renovation transformed this residence hall from a cold, dark shell into an exciting, vital place to live and learn. The project also included the installation of new ramps and elevators along with a total replacement of all building engineered systems. The University could not afford to take the entire facility off line at one time for the renovation work. Working in occupied spaces with phased construction was nothing new to the Barton Malow team - they were up to the challenge. Due to the loss of a significant number of student beds, the project was constructed in two phases. Phase I opened in June 2011 and Phase II opened in June 2012. This project was designed to meet LEED Silver certification standards by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is currently LEED Silver Registered.
B ui l d i n g I nno v ati v e S o l u t i o n s
“Thanks to the efforts of Barton Malow and Clark Nexsen, the Ambler Johnston Renovation is the most successful project at Virginia Tech in many years.” Tim Gift • Director of Maintenance • Virginia Tech
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DT E E N E R G Y T H U M B W I N D PA R K
LESSONS IN LOGISTICS Located on 15,000 acres and spread over 600 square miles in Michigan’s “thumb” region, DTE Energy’s Thumb Wind Park consists of (69) 1.6 megawatt General Electric wind turbines. The park generates renewable energy capable of powering 25,000 homes in Michigan. A unique aspect of the Thumb Wind Park construction centered on the seven turbines sited at the Beck Sod Farm. Soil conditions at the sod farm consisted of dense peat moss ranging between 3 and 10 feet in depth. The existing farm roads were typically a 12to 24-inch layer of floating clay topped with stone. During site excavation, timbers were unearthed from below the clay that were seated in a perpendicular orientation – multiple generations of the sod farmer’s family had added them over time to serve as additional support for transport of their equipment across the land. This “homegrown” structural engineering posed not only design complications, but constructability issues as well. Barton Malow’s equipment had to be evaluated piece-by-piece to ensure weights were not too much for the roads to handle. Only select pieces were capable of venturing off-road for construction needs, but even they had to be carefully monitored. In reality, any piece of equipment had the potential to sink completely into the peat. Had this occurred, impact to the schedule would have been considerable. During foundation construction, the peat moss had to be entirely removed before a subsurface capable of
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by Matt Lentini
passing compaction testing was reached. This material was typically a clay composition much like the farm roads and was unsuitable for bearing the required loads of the foundations. Undercuts at the subsurface ranged between three and eight feet in depth. Additional geotechnical challenges included working below the water table, the need for engineered material to improve ground conditions for foundation loads, as well as the engineering and construction of crane pads more than eight times their usual depth to ensure a stable base for maintaining balance during heavy turbine component lifts. Additional planning was also required for tower section deliveries to the site. With the road composition primarily consisting of floating clay, a specialty trailer was required for transport to accommodate the necessary axle-weight distribution. The twelve-line Goldhofer trailer’s hydraulic load leveling system provided the right pressure on unstable road surfaces, while its 90-degree steer capabilities enabled the team to travel between sites without building additional turning radius improvements into existing roads, generating a savings for the owner in civil construction costs. Every step of the way had to be meticulously planned and scheduled on the Beck Sod Farm. Constant communication among all team members and innovative approaches to complex logistical challenges led to successful turbine installations at the Thumb Wind Park.
B ui l d i n g I nno v ati v e S o l u t i o n s
LEARN ABOUT THE MASSIVE CR ANE USED ON SITE
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P E R S O N N E L
P R O F I L E
MUDDY BOOTS AND SHARED ROOTS • THE BROTHERS BINKOWSKI Barton Malow is fortunate to employ hundreds of passionate and dedicated people who live and breathe construction. With over 125 years of collective service, the Binkowski family is among the many Barton Malow families who have chosen to share their multi-generational legacy of construction expertise and experience with the company.
TOM AND CHUCK SHARE THEIR PASSIONS
Following in the boot prints of their father, Bruno Binkowski - Chuck, Don, and Tom Binkowki began their construction careers as laborers with Barton Malow. As young men, coming to work for Barton Malow was less a choice than an obvious opportunity. Through their years in the field, each honed their skills and learned all that they could about construction. Chuck, Don and Tom, each said to “bleed Barton Malow blue,” followed their passions and are now Central Region Vice President, General Superintendent, and General Foreman, respectively. “There are definite benefits to working with family,” says Tom. “There’s an elevated level of trust, accountability and expectation. When you’ve grown up with someone, you can almost read one another’s minds.” He adds with a knowing laugh, “You’re often a lot harder on family too. You know how far you can push them.” The only drawback, says Chuck, “The conversation at family events is often dominated by shop talk. We have to turn it off sometimes.” While the choice to join Barton Malow was obvious for each of the Binkowski’s, when asked why they have stayed for so many years, their answers were simple, “The people and the opportunities. This is just a great company.”
Building Innovative Solutions www.bartonmalow.com MARISA VARGA, LEED AP marisa.varga@bartonmalow.com CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION