Steel Mills and Steel Processing : Design-Build Project Highlight

Project: Aluminum Pot Line Facility
Location: Kentucky
Type: Hybrid
Features: These aluminum pot line buildings each have a 40 ton operation crane operating around the clock as well as a 100 ton maintenance crane used to remove and rebuild the pots. Each building is an independent structure with only walkway corridors connecting the buildings at three locations between each building.

Hybrid Design Build Benefits

Due to the large amount of electrical present in these type facilities the owner required the base plates of the steel to be a minimum of 10 ft. above the floor elevation. This presented a challenge in keeping the structure as economical as possible. Working as a part of the design build team with the engineer of record and the concrete foundation design engineers, and after considering several pre-engineered and conventional options to try to reduce the foundation size, while minimizing the weight of the steel structure, it was determined that the "stepped column" or the "hammerhead column" design with the flat bottom truss would be the most economical solution when the cost of the steel and the concrete were taken into consideration. This design proved to be a very light overall design considering the size of the cranes and use of the facility. The owner states that this design saved over 20% in weight as compared to the previous 6 identical sized buildings they currently had on site.