As part of a design/build team, A2H served as the architectural and engineering design lead for this complicated brownfield redevelopment project. The plant manufactures plastic products for everything from automotive applications to household appliance components.
The objective for this project: expand the plant’s capacity, modernize operations, and make environmental improvements to the site all while maintaining all operations.
As a key economic driver for the local community, the design/build team was challenged to provide unique solutions that would ensure that redevelopment was not only a feasible option but a better choice than relocation.
Some of the challenges on the existing site included: its adjacency to existing homes and businesses, complex soils issues, proximity to the floodplain, integrating a mix of existing and new equipment, and avoiding operational interruptions.
Notable aspects of the project include a new on-site wastewater treatment process, plastic injection molding space, chroming and painting lines, CMM lab, training rooms, offices, quality labs, assembly areas, and state-of-the-art conveyor systems.
The facility also includes sizable clear space to accommodate production space, a 100’ span 25-ton bridge crane, and a roof height that reaches 50’ all of which presented additional technical challenges due to the project’s location within a high vulnerability seismic zone (Category E).
Accommodating sampling stations and active monitoring wells all while raising the site above active flood plain for a good portion of the new production building was challenging throughout design and construction phasing.
The soils required improving and a strategy for accelerating settlements was employed so that portions of the building could be built to accommodate relocation of equipment from buildings scheduled to be demolished in order to construct phases of the remaining proposed new construction. The relocated equipment had to be functional in the new space while construction was proceeding on subsequent phases.
