ZF INDUSTRIES WIND ENERGY MANUFACTURING FACILITY

LOCATION
Gainesville, GA

CLIENT
Pattillo Construction

DESCRIPTION

ZF Wind Energy Manufacturing Facility – Haines, Gipson and Associates provided Structural and Civil engineering services on this 287,000 s.f. Design/ Build project with Pattillo Construction at a Gainesville, Georgia site. The ZF Group, a leading global automotive supplier for driveline and chassis technology, expanded their Gainesville-Hall County operation with the construction of this Wind Energy Plant. This project represented a $100M investment. The plant manufactures gear boxes for wind turbine energy generation. The unique plant characteristics include approximately 40 overhead cranes ranging from small 4 ton systems to the larger 32 ton bays. This was accommodated by stiff-arm supports at the main building columns. With almost every bay having multiple bays, some intermediate crane support framing was also introduced. The manufacturing process required roof structure heights in the 40’ range. Precast insulated panels were used as the plant cladding with clerestory natural light penetrations. The special machinery foundations were numerous and dynamic given that many of the machines were being built for the first time to serve in this plant. This entailed extensive discussions and coordination with the European machine manufacturers. Many of the machines exhibited tight tolerances on vibration, settlement, and rocking. The resulting foundations were at times massive with the inertia blocks falling into the “mass concrete” area, thus requiring special design mixes / thermal blankets. Finally, given the construction sequence and dynamic process on the size / location of the special machine foundations, several of the existing building column foundations required undermining support to construct the machine foundations after the roof structure was in place. Other unique elements of this project included numerous pits, mezzanines, a chiller plant, and an open HazMat Storage dock area. The large Heat Treatment Pit was the most complex of all these items. The 17’ deep x 40’ x 60’ void had to be framed with a removable floor system to allow crane access to equipment and materials manufactured in the pit. The land disturbance incorporated approximately 41 acres of a 211 acre parcel of land. Our firm overcame the challenge to accommodate the parking and water quality needs given a tough site with many elevation changes

PROJECT BUDGET
$100 million