Story

Kent Companies won the competitive, open bid process to perform all of the concrete work at The Rapid’s expansion of their Wealthy Street Operations Center.  This opportunity allowed Kent Companies to once again partner with the professionals at The Christman Company on another time sensitive, multiple phased project.  This project occurred over the course of two years with many areas of the Operations Center still in full force while additions and renovations took place.  The largest part of the expansion was the addition of over 80,000 square feet of a very heavy structural concrete deck to provide parking for the buses with a new bus wash area, and a full depth basement underneath for onsite parking of employee vehicles.  Along with this additional space and other extensive remodeling, the existing maintenance bays and bus wash were reconfigured, the existing parking garage floor was removed and replaced, and an office build out within the existing bus parking garage took place.

The additional parking area and bus wash for The Rapid buses required the design of a beam and joist system that used some beams in excess of five feet tall and eight feet wide with massive amounts of reinforcing steel within them.  Kent Companies partnered with their formwork supplier to develop a hybrid forming system of tables and support posts to enable two weeks or less cycle times between pours.  The onsite space restrictions limited much of the placing of deck shoring to one of Kent Companies’ cranes and the use of motorized hydraulic hand carts. The perimeter of the structural deck rests on eighteen feet tall walls along three sides, with  columns and beams on the west side to create openings for ventilation fans for the underground employee parking.  The construction of the deck took place in the middle of a Michigan winter that saw temps below zero and multiple snow events of heavy accumulations.  Even in these adverse conditions, over 9,000 cubic yards of concrete passed through Kent Companies’ concrete pump trucks to fill the formwork and shoring for the floors, walls, and decks.

The office build out of the project was not only an addition onto the existing structure, but converted space within the existing parking garage to office space.  The owner of the project wanted LEED status for the building, and in an effort to meet LEED requirements, specified the use of the very unique “Terr-Con” floor system throughout the office area.  This system incorporates glass chips, a specially designed concrete mix, and diamond polishing to create a beautiful floor with high reflectivity that has minimal maintenance concerns.    To avoid any potential for cracking that would take away from the floor’s appearance, much attention was paid to the layout of the bulkheads, and multiple pours were made to eliminate any potential for cracking off from the many corners that were present in the layout of the rooms and hallway.

The Wealthy Street Operations Expansion allowed Kent Companies’ to once again show its depth of knowledge in the different facets of concrete construction; from the heavy construction elements of a structural concrete deck, to the architectural elements of a designer floor and exposed walls.