Challenging Albuquerque water tank project sees Alshor Plus tables raising high above water level for the first time in the USA, reaching over 12 metres to shore up a complex curved roof design.

 

Bringing a new product or system into any country for the first time is always a challenge, but when USA formwork specialist CMC Construction Services teamed up with RMD Kwikform’s export team to bring Alshor Plus over to America, the complex nature of its first project was to prove a perfect test for the system.

 

Here Roger Smith, Export Director for RMD Kwikform explains how working together CMC Construction Services and RMD Kwikform were able to secure the job and see it through to its successful completion: “The project itself was to build a 12.2 million gallon water tank with a dome roof that reached up to 12 metres from the ground at its highest point. The reason the project was highlighted as a potential job for Alshor Plus was the requirement to provide a shoring solution to support the construction of the 3,850 square metre curved roof.

 

“The roof itself was to be supported on skinny round columns with down stands at the top, on a chequerboard square column grid. The main challenge was the 2% radial fall of both the base and the roof slab from the centre to the perimeter edge and the requirement for a table style soffit support approach, that could be simply moved into place from one pour to the next.

 

“In order to prove that Alshor Plus could not only provide the relevant structural support for the task at hand, but that the solution designed would be easy to use and support the tight programme time for the construction, we had to invest significant time in the design and training process.

 

“The first thing we had to do was show how the system could work, a process that involved the erection of Alshor Plus tables in the standard arrangement. Then because the angles involved required the table to be moved at 1.5 degree to the vertical, in order to support the dome shape, we had to prove that with the use of Alshor Plus jacks, the tables could be erected into the correct position.

 

“By working with the erection team onsite we were also able to develop an new innovative approach to the erection procedure. Unlike the rest of the world, in America this type of shoring solution is first erected in the horizontal and then raised into the vertical and craned into position.

 

“Thanks to the modular nature of the Alshor Plus system and the use of bracing frames to ensure Alshor Plus tables are correctly supported, the inherent leg strength of Alshor Plus that can withstand leg loads of up to 120kN could support and withstand the pressures associated with horizontal erection and crane movement.

 

“So having proven the capabilities of the Alshor Plus system and explained the efficiency and health and safety benefits associated with it, the customer opted to use it for the job.”

 

With the water tank now complete, the Alshor Plus system has proven its worth in American and is already being used on other projects thanks to its adoption by CMC Construction Services as its shoring solution of choice.

 

For further information on Alshor Plus visit www.rmdkwikform.com or if you are in the USA contact CMC Construction Services www.cmcconstructionservices.com

 

 

 

 

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