Holcim

When cracks began to appear in one of Holcim's newly-opened cement manufacturing towers, engineers wanted to reinforce it by installing an awkward post-tensioning system to the building's exterior. This, however, would have required extensive reengineering to adjacent machinery, and at a cost of more than $80 million, a better plan was needed.

An ambitious alternative was proposed: Insert the steel tendons of a post-tensioning system directly into the existing seven levels of concrete that form the 320-feet-high building. For this to work, the pockets that would receive the tendons needed to be precisely drilled so as not to harm the steel reinforcements already embedded in the concrete beams. Since the tower's structural defects had brought plant operations to a costly standstill, this plan and all of its construction efforts were under great pressure to restore the facility to service as quickly as possible.

The rebar cages encased in each of the tower's beams was so constricting that the holes to be drilled within them could only tolerate a one inch deviation, both horizontally and vertically, throughout their entire 110-foot length. To accomplish this, CTI' fabricated specialized coring tools that could be finely calibrated to drill holes to such precise specifications.

Armed with this precision equipment and our efficient FASTrack Process™ , CTI mounted an aggressive work schedule designed to meet the project's demanding timetable. Working at dangerous heights and exposed to severe winter cold and winds, CTI's project managers and skilled technicians safely and quickly removed 265,000 linear feet of concrete to create the necessary holes.

Through an innovative project plan, safe, skillful labor and the right tools for the job, CTI turned an imaginative idea into a practical solution, and in the process, secured a $30 million savings for the owner.