Aeroton Roof Jack Project
SAISC PROJECTS
Aeroton Roof Jack Project
“ This Project is an excellent example of how an existing industrial warehouse type structure can be rejuvenated and given a new lease on life in an economical and time effective way.”
The client, Fortress Income Fund, approached L & S Consulting and Quanticost Pretoria in October 2015 to investigate the options to raise the roof of an existing 3 800 square meter warehouse by 4m in order to provide the necessary storage volume for a prospective tenant.
The consultants approached Tass Engineering to provide a price to dismantle the existing roof structure, extend the columns and re-erect the existing structure or to demolish and construct a new structure. Tass Engineering in turn proposed to jack the entire roof in a single lift operation to the required height, with the structure remaining intact including roof sheeting and side cladding. This option was priced with taking the time constraints of the project into consideration and was found to be the most viable solution.
The existing warehouse structure comprises of steel trusses, spaced at 6m centres and spanning 31m, supported in the centre by a lattice girder spanning 24m between columns. The trusses are supported by full height steel columns along the perimeter. The structure is clad with IBR sheeting on the roof and the sides, with monitor frames provided on the roof and clad with translucent sheets.
For this application, steelwork is the ideal material of choice, due to its strength and availability of various section sizes to suit an existing structure’ s section sizes. This project is an excellent example of how an existing industrial warehouse type structure can be rejuvenated and given a new lease on life in an economical and time effective way.
The existing structure relied on portal framed action to resist the wind loading on the structure. The additional stresses due to the increased wind loading as a result of lifting the roof, exceeded the resistance capacity of the portal action of the structural frame. Also, due to the time constraints, no strengthening of the existing foundations could be considered to resist the increased forces.
Project Team
Client: Fortress Income Fund Architect: O-Inc Structural Engineer: L & S Consulting Quantity Surveyor: Quanticost Pretoria Main Contractor: Abbeydale Steelwork Contractor and Detailer: TASS Engineering P / L Cladding Supplier: Tate & Nicholson Steelwork Erector and System Implementation: IHJ Engineering
A bracing system was designed and installed to resist the increased in-plane forces without having to alter the existing foundations or to strengthen the existing perimeter columns. The increased height of the structure had a negligible additional gravitational loading on the existing foundations.
The innovative lifting operation proved to be a safe, cost effective and time saving solution to alter an existing facility to be suitable for a prospective tenant. Going forward this option should be considered as a viable option to provide increased storage capacity to existing facilities.
16 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 3 2016