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 The 1991 NOVA Award Winners |
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BEKare Child Development Center The NOVA Award was presented to the BEKare Child Development Center for innovation in providing benefits to construction workers and recruiting women into the construction workforce. To encourage more women to pursue construction careers, BE&K Construction Company developed a program to make it easier for women to receive training and accept assignments as skilled carpenters, electricians, welders, and pipefitters. Early start times, three-shift assignments, and the need to attend after-shift apprentice classes have been an impediment to women to enter the ranks of craft workers. Conventional child care centers do not open early enough or stay open late enough to accommodate construction project schedules. BE&K President Michael T. Goodrich decided to sponsor a facility designed specifically to meet the child care problems of his company and its subcontractors. The child care center would move from site to site, with hours adjusted to meet the requirements of each project. BE&K hired a professional child care staff to move with the center, which they named BEKare. Director Mary Jo Cline and her staff are salaried employees of BE&K. BEKare's facility and its staff meet the standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The BEKare Child Development Center opened in January, 1990 at a project site in Georgia, where BE&K was working on a major pulp mill expansion project. Five mobile units were linked together to make a building 54' x 70'. The Center stayed open up to 24 hours a day when necessary to support three shifts and apprentice training. This first BEKare-supported project had a craft force that was more than 10% female workers -well above the national average for construction companies. The innovative approach to child care has attracted even greater numbers of women employees to BE&K. The BEKare Child Development Center provides child care for prime contractor and subcontractor workers, tailored to the special schedules of construction workers. The Center moves from worksite to worksite, and its hours can be easily adjusted from day to day to meet construction and training demands. Primarily Responsible: |
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Retrofit of Concrete Columns with Seismic Isolators The NOVA Award was presented to the Retrofit of Concrete Columns with Seismic Isolators for innovation in supporting and cutting columns in a fully operational building. Rockwell International Corporation's Headquarters and Information Systems Center operates 24 hours a day. The eight-story building, located near California's Newport Inglewood fault, must survive earthquakes without downtime. The contract required the building continue to operate during the project. Morley Construction Company retrofit the building by inserting seismic base isolators into 54 concrete columns. The isolators are alternating rubber and steel plates that minimize the transfer of earthquake forces from the ground to a building's upper floors. Installation of the isolators required cutting a segment out of each concrete column between the first and second floors. The system was devised to carry column loads while concrete segments were removed and isolators inserted, was developed by engineers at Adams & Smith. Friction yokes gripped each column, above and below the segment to be removed. Four 500-ton hydraulic jacks carried the column load, enabling full column support without bulky shoring. Cutting the columns presented another challenge. Sawing access was severely limited, the cut surface had to be extremely smooth, and lubricating water had to be tightly controlled. Craftsman Concrete Cutting Company and Longyear Construction suggested using a plunge saw, a recent German innovation. They also designed a special bracket for horizontal cutting. Sequential cutting passes with blades of increasing diameter were then made to sever the columns, of which the largest was 84" x 36". After a segment was removed, the isolator was inserted along with a flatjack. The flatjack was expanded, using liquid epoxy, the hydraulic jacks and friction yokes were removed, and the columns again carried their own loads. Throughout this process, the building remained operational and occupants conducted their activities without interruption. An innovative friction jacking system for temporary support, and a specially-designed saw for making exceptionally flat, level cuts, enabled column cross sections to be removed and replaced with seismic isolators without disrupting building operations. Primarily Responsible: C. Terry Dooley; Wayne Gaul; Cynthia Kennec; Hank Lutge; Henry McCormick; Alan Merson; Bernon Smith; Raymond Stefanco Contact: C. Terry Dooley Morley Construction Company 2901 28th Street Santa Monica, CA 90405 Phone: 310-399-1600 |
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Innovation Forum, Inc.® 350 S. Main St., Suite 350 Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. 48104-2131 Phone: (734) 995-1855 Fax: (734) 995-5002 email: info@cif.org |
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