Foundry Expansion
Manitowoc, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry

We have had the pleasure of working with Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry (WAF) for many years and have delivered a wide of range of construction solutions for themanufacturer of top-quality aluminum and copper-based alloy castings. For this project, WAF came to us in February of 2018 with a need for a 23,500-square-foot expansion to their existing Manitowoc manufacturing facility. The expansion needed to have the capacity to accommodate four 15-ton overhead bridge cranes that would tie into two areas of the existing facility. In addition, WAF would need to occupy the new facility by the end of June 2018. Given the tight schedule and need for uninterrupted manufacturing space, the A.C.E. team selected a Butler^® pre-engineered metal building for this project.

The project timeline was truly a challenge. Discussions began in February, and all of the upfront approval items—city site plan approval, state plan approval, engineering, design, estimating— were all completed in a fast-tracked compressed timeframe. The A.C.E. team broke ground on March 12 and the building was enclosed and occupied on time.

In addition to the four 15-ton overhead bridge cranes, the scope of the project included a heavy-duty floor designed for large industrial forklift traffic. The floor was poured in one day with the use of a concrete pumping truck and laser screeds. Given the tight timeframe and the risk of poor weather, we decided to partner with a specialty contractor to get the job done on schedule. We sourced the ready-mix concrete from two different providers simultaneously in order to meet the demands of the single-day pour. We also had to temporarily re-route the downspouts that drained approximately 30,000 square feet of roof surface until the expansion roof was complete.