Andrews Air Force Base
Job Facts
Tons of steel: 60 tons
Contractor: Vanguard
Project Manager: Ron Okurowski
Sub Contractor: B&B Welding Company, Inc.
Erector: B&B Welding Company, Inc.
Presidents, popes, kings, sultans and sheiks — the big wigs of the world all enter the United States at Andrew’s Air Force Base, “The Gateway to the Capital.” And after their long overseas journeys in private jets and first class cabins, what’s the first thing they see? How about 60 tons of bent and bolted B&B steel.
To keep visiting dignitaries safe from the elements — and in this case, safe from the noise and force of jet blasts — the Air Force contracted Vanguard Contractors to manage the construction of a series of canopies and railings sheltering the walkway from the parking lot to the terminal. To get the job done right, Vanguard, a government/military specialty contractor, quickly turned to B&B for help. “Van Guard called us up out of the blue,” says Dennis McCartney. “This job required AISC certification, which, of course, we had.”
Our task: to fabricate and erect a series of architecturally exposed structural steel canopies. Built with square tube columns, double rolled channels, and tube-steel purlins and coated with an inorganic zinc primer, the job required an architecturally exposed aesthetic. The dominant design detail is a back-to-back channel rafter arrangement rolled the hard way. The dramatic curve creates an airfoil shape that simulates an airplane’s wing.
B&B went straight to work firing up the plate machine, numerous saws, and the portamag drills. The canopy’s main steel framework, the square tube columns, connect to the rolled channel rafters with an architecturally exposed flourish: a 1” thick trapezoid shaped plate knifed into the top of the HSS column and is sandwiched between the back-to-back channel rafter beams and bolted with ¾” bolts. The end result is a dramatic cantilever effect.
Originally, the drawings called for the columns to be set into a cylinder and filled with concrete. After years of anchoring columns in the earth, we immediately raised a red flag and asked, “How will you ever set the columns, line them up and erect them properly?” We knew there was a smarter solution.
“We came up with a pretty neat concept to erect the columns to a fixed elevation,” says Ralph. Our suggestion: devise an innovative caisson anchor template system that allowed us to set the columns to elevation first, then erect and lastly pour the concrete and anchor the whole system. “That made the columns actually erectable,” says Ralph. “And it eliminated a lot of needless field welding.”
We didn’t stop there either. We devised numerous architectural fixes to the exposed steel; including, architecturally pleasing quadrilateral end caps to the rolled channel fixture, adjustable column covers that slide up and down the column connections, and pre-cast concrete column covers. The entire promenade was accented with an acrylic screen wall frame that had to be completed bolted to the columns in each lite in the frame had to be individually mounted within completed bolted glass stops.
For all the innovations and quality fabrication, however, the job ran into a rather unique work stoppage: When the President of the United States took off or landed in Air Force One, all construction came to an abrupt halt.
In the end, we take no small pride in knowing that our hard work and ingenuity helped to create a pleasing promenade for our country’s formal visitors, be they dignitaries or kings, friends or foes.
