Northwest Construction - (Page 3) Sheraton Hotel Addition For example, workers completed the new kitchen before demolishing the old one. Electrical, heating and other systems had to remain online during the entire renovation. Workers got creative when the attachment of the new podium structure to the existing podium required the demolition of a 12-in.-thick, 100by 50-ft wall that provided the shear value to the structure. First, crews temporarily shored and braced the existing structure, then cut the concrete wall vertically into pieces in such a way that the wall’s shear value remained. Then, the new wall portions were tied into the existing wall, adding the shear value that would eventually be lost. Once the wall was stable, horizontal cuts were made to the existing concrete wall and the sections were carefully lifted out by crane. Despite a thorough preconstruction site evaluation, construction crews encountered five oil tanks and associated contaminated soil of the construction site during excavation. Initially, the discovery delayed the schedule by several weeks. Because the completion of the ballroom phase could not be pushed out, Skanska added crews and accelerated the schedule so that unbending date could be met. The tight downtown site, immediately next to the busy Union Street offramp from Interstate 5, gave crews zero laydown space for materials and the use of only one lane of roadway during off-peak hours. To ensure suppliers trailers could maximize the use of the closed traffic lane, Skanska rented a semitractor for a portion of the project and used it to haul trailers to the site when the lanes were available. The expanded port-cochere is the hotel expansion’s most immediately visible high-end element. Its renovation takes the grand entryway from a simple space with landscape pavers on the driveway and gray concrete sidewalks to one with colored concrete driveway paving, flame-cut granite pavers on the sidewalk and concealed fastener glass guardrails. 3 Northwest Construction 12/ 2007
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