The Structural Engineering of Value: Tri-Tech and SWEMCO’s Addition
In early March, COVID-19 forced civic and industry leaders to make swift decisions to preserve public health. Hospital hallways filled with patients as classrooms, office buildings, and restaurants emptied following stay-home orders from state leaders across the country. For the next weeks, only those industries and workers deemed “essential” to America’s infrastructure remained open. Along with grocery stores—and their empty toilet-paper aisles—pharmacies, and banks, some construction companies and their projects maintained momentum. And in Moorefield, New Jersey, construction continued for SWEMCO Electronics and Manufacturing’s new facility, a project served by Tri-Tech Engineering.
Tri-Tech’s involvement in the project began in August 2019. Tri-Tech developed the preliminary design for the two-floor facility addition for SWEMCO. The preliminary design supplied a conventional steel design that would span 30,000 sq. ft. and require more than 450,000 pounds of steel. It also provided load and weight calculations of the steel design, as well as essential figures for materials and associated costs. Tri-Tech’s preliminary design soon led further into the SWEMCO project.
SWEMCO manufactures electronic technologies and offers logistics services for aerospace, avionics, medical equipment, and industrial control systems. The necessity of their production and services would skyrocket months after the project began as the Coronavirus pandemic would put an untold strain on the availability of medical equipment and necessary technologies to assist in ensuring the country’s health during the pandemic and supplying products to essential industries. Additionally, as construction slowed across the country, construction on the SWEMCO addition was already in motion and could continue. Tri-Tech’s design process supplied indispensable efficiencies early on, helping the SWEMCO project begin on time and on budget.
While Tri-Tech provided the project’s final structural-steel design, Grace Construction Management also requested Tri-Tech be the Engineer of Record for the project. Tri-Tech developed their detailed steel engineering designs, which included every hole and weld, with 3D software (Tekla Structures). Additionally, Tri-Tech supplied the structural steel-shop drawings for fabrication. The builder then also requested a separate service for concrete designs from Tri-Tech for the addition’s foundation, floor slab, CMU retaining walls, stair shafts, elevator shafts, and partitions. Providing these numerous services allowed Tri-Tech to help the builder avoid extra costs, time, communications with multiple firms, and overall construction management.
The unforeseen slowing of the nation’s economy and day-to-day life from COVID-19 forced many industries and companies to all but stop. Thankfully, essential companies like SWEMCO continued to provide essential products and services and helped the local and national economy maintain some momentum. Likewise, Tri-Tech has been there to help SWEMCO maintain theirs.
