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CLIENT: Oregon Department of Transportation
ENGINEERS: Joe Kurth, Jennifer Veldorale, Chad Corkern
PROJECT MANAGER: Hunter Wylie
PARTNERS/VENDORS: Â Soderstrom Architects, GRI, Cundiff Engineering, TriVector
In late 2017, Crow Engineering was awarded the planning, design, and engineering of a $10M maintenance facility for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) in Meacham, Oregon. The initial scope of our services included providing complex site planning arrangements that optimized the dispatch, maintenance, and storage of their snowplow and road maintenance fleets. In addition to the fleet needs, the location is sitting in an old quarry with poor soil conditions and no capability to support the septic systems for this facility.
ODOT’s Meacham Maintenance Station facility is the Agency’s home base for highway maintenance on Interstate 84 through the Blue Mountains between La Grande and Pendleton. Facility functions include maintenance vehicle dispatch, equipment servicing, minor repairs, material and tool storage, fueling, de-icing, stockpiling of road sand and salt, and crew areas.
ODOT has been planning for decades to invest in a replacement of the Meacham Maintenance Station. This investment will coincide with snow zone safety improvements on I-84, and will improve highway maintenance response times on I-84 and crew efficiency, as well as reduce wear and tear on agency equipment, and save on energy costs.
The new facility includes:
Crow Engineering executed two major building and machinery upgrades that included significant bridge crane upgrades and significant machinery re-design.
Phase #1 – Log Deck Installation
The first phase of this project included the upgrade of the log deck, which included the complete turnkey design of an outdoor log deck that included an overhead bridge crane and hydraulic log loaders.
Phase #2 – Plant Modernization
The second project phase at this site involved the upgrade of the current sawing systems to a modernized solution. This solution required a significant upgrade to the bridge crane systems, roof, supporting members, piling and foundation for the entire building. Crow Engineering helped Weyerhaeuser save >$500k in capital expenses by being able to re-purpose the current facility on site. In this change we were able to significantly increase the roof capacity, add a bridge crane system that was over 2.5x the capacity of the current system, and increase the span and reach of the crane system. In parallel, Crow Engineering engineered all of the support systems needed to fi t in the new saw equipment into the new space.
For both programs, Crow Engineering was onsite regularly with the clients through the estimation, design, and construction phases of the project. Design input was taken from plant management, project management, maintenance managers and floor personnel for each of these projects. Crow held team meetings on site for Weyerhaeuser personnel that included 12 plus team members from various roles across the organization. In addition to this, Crow also took part in and coordinated key vendor meetings for critical machine tool suppliers. This coordination gave Weyerhaeuser one key point of contact for all design related activities.
In both of these programs Crow Engineering accomplished the following:
Portland, OR
Engineer: Jennifer Veldorale, PE
Crow Engineering is an on-call structural engineering consultant for Portland State University. We have provided services for the university including tenant build-outs and modifications to historical buildings.
Crow Engineering’s close proximity to Portland allows us to be onsite for a hands-on evaluation of each new project. Currently ongoing projects include the addition of a wheelchair lift to the student Honors Building. No drawings are available from the original construction of this historic building, and careful exploration has been required to determine the extent of the building’s foundations.
During the first phase of this program, we provided initial site planning services and +/-30% construction estimates in support of developing the facility. Our site plans included multiple options for developing the property and the costs/risk associated with each option. Once a final site plan was selected and capital budgets approved, Crow Engineering furnished the full design and engineering services for the facility. We leveraged our experience and historical data and were able to use 95% of the warehouse’s square footage capacity, with seven 5-ton overhead bridge cranes installed throughout the manufacturing facility.
We also designed their 5,000 square feet, two-story office area that was built into the facility—including bathrooms, offices, lockers, team rooms, and storage for all personnel. Because it is located near a residential area, we had to consider a variety of site planning considerations. For example, machine and equipment placement was crucial to mitigate sound disturbances to existing residents.
Many environmental considerations were made so that residual water and runoff did not flow into the Columbia River. We reviewed Best Management Practices (BMPs) with key stakeholders to ensure that all regulations were followed. The largest challenge for this site was the extremely poor soil quality and dewatering needs in support of the site development.
Our engineering team developed an extremely complex and dense piling arrangement to support the heavy industrial use occurring at this facility. After many years of use, the client has not had to realign complicated processing equipment based on the quality and efficacy of our foundation and piling designs.
Crow Engineering was the lead consultant for multiple phases of the Weyerhaeuser Longview project. Over a span of years, Crow worked on the export and log processing facility, planing mill, sawmill, and log yard.