 |
 |
|
Elaine McCluskey's Part One by Elaine McCluskey
The two-year project that will put Fermilabís Wilson Hall back on the list of"Tall Buildings of Northeastern Illinois That Are Not Falling Apart" is about to begin in earnest. Floor by floor, the crumbling concrete joints will be rebuilt and the problem plumbing fixed. Floor by floor, Wilson hallís occupants will be relocated, to be moved back in again when work on their levels is complete. The conductor for this complex performance in several acts is Fermilab engineer Elaine McCluskey. For the benefit of Wilson Hall ís long-suffering residents and visitors, McCluskey has prepared Part One of a guide to the opening stages of Wilson Hall reconstruction. Watch this space for Part Two.
-- Judy Jackson 1. Plumbing
Scope: new riser pipes to bring water from basement to each restroom; new chiller/filter units on 16th floor for drinking water; new pipes to each floor for new drinking fountains; new pipes in restrooms on floors 1-6; new drinking fountains on floors 1-6; remove old water coolers at south end of building. As of mid-February 2000, riser work is about 70 percent complete, pipes to new drinking fountains are about 50 percent complete, old water cooler removal is 95 percent complete and new pipes for restrooms are 12 percent complete. First floor restrooms are done. Beginning in February, floors 2, 4, and 6 rest rooms and drinking fountains will be done simultaneously. Later: rest rooms on floors 3 and 5 plus chiller/ filter units for drinking water.
2. Structural Repairs
Scope:
replace pipes in rest rooms on floors 7-15;
replace drinking fountains on floors 7-15.
From November to the beginning of January 2000, the subcontractor worked with consultant structural engineers to determine how best to erect the shoring required to support the north crossover floors 7-9 during structural repairs. These plans have undergone a"shop drawing" review by Fermilab. Structural steel shoring is scheduled for delivery to Wilson Hall beginning the third week of February.
The contractor will bring three steel trusses into the atrium via the front doors and place them in a temporary staging area in front of the planters, two trusses at a time. A fourth will be assembled amidst the planting area to better position it for hoisting. The trusses will then be hoisted to their positions at the sixth-floor level, to be supported at the west and east atrium edge beams.
A shoring tower will support the north section of the crossover. Originally, the contractor planned to erect trusses similar to the other four here too; but practical difficulties led to the proposal for a shoring tower. The tower will rise from the first floor to the seventh floor. Shoring will be installed from the first floor down to the mezzanine level, and then from the mezzanine to the ground floor. This will ensure that the 160,000 pounds of load that the tower carries will be taken down to a solid foundation.
All the shoring should be in place below the seventh floor by the end of February.
The shoring will be installed at night, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The front doors of Wilson Hall will be closed during this night-time work, and people will enter through the ground- floor entrances. Once the shoring is in place, there will be no restrictions on use of the front entrance until the summer of 2000 when the north window wall glass will be replaced.
Starting the week of January 10, 2000, the seventh-floor crossover and rest rooms became inaccessible. They will open again when the ninth-floor crossover structural repairs are complete, sometime in May 2000. Then the shoring under the seventh floor may be removed.
The subcontractor has installed a"hoist and swing stage" on the fifteenth floor north crossover, to allow access to the concrete joints that need repair along the atrium side of the crossover. The stage (or platform) is suspended from the fifteenth floor when work is underway, and hauled back to the seventh floor at the end of each night. The hoist will be used for material moves to each of the north crossover floors. The enclosure for the hoist area is painted plywood walls, locked so it is inaccessible to anyone but the subcontractor and authorized Fermilab personnel. Its 15-foot-square presence is unmistakable on the fifteenth floor against the atrium windows.
|
These trusses will support the south and center sections of the north crossovers. Each truss will weigh approximately 7000 pounds and will support a load from the floors above of as much as 56,000 pounds.
| last modified 2/11/2000 email Fermilab |
FRLsDFx9eyfrPXgV