Weaving complex ventilation systems, processed gas piping systems and various safety items into a laboratory building is making the Aldrich Chemical Co. Inc. construction project in Milwaukee interesting.

With a construction budget of approximately $50 million, the project was precipitated by the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange, where Interstates 94 and 43 converge in downtown Milwaukee. The existing Aldrich Chemical building is located in the middle of the interchange and is surrounded by elevated freeway lanes. It had to be demolished for the highway project to proceed.

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Although the freeway project was not a surprise, a spokesperson for Aldrich said that the time frame was shorter than expected. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation purchased the property at 940 W. St. Paul in December 2002.

Fortunately, the company had enough land at its near-north-side storage and shipping facility to accommodate construction of new facilities. Jerry Kaminski, project director for construction manager C.G. Schmidt of Milwaukee, said the project includes a laboratory building, packaging building, administration building and warehouse.

The 75,000-sq.-ft. administration building, 32,000-sq.-ft. warehouse and 63,000-sq.-ft. administration building are attached to an existing structure on the site, which will require some renovations. The 125,000-sq.-ft. lab building is a stand-alone structure and the most complex of the four structures.

"The lab building, which is where they will actually produce the chemicals, is very, very equipment intensive," Kaminski said. "It's even worse than a hospital."

He added that finding the most economical ways to create the needed systems and fitting them into the building wasn't easy. At the same time, his firm had to manage construction of the other three buildings.

There is 10 ft. of interstitial space in the lab building, and half of the 20-ft., floor-to-floor space in the building is taken up with duct work and piping, Kaminski said. The other half is devoted to work space and exhaust hoods.

"There is a lot of what they call process piping in the lab building," he added. "This is what handles chemicals, chemical waste and different gasses."

In addition, each of the fume hoods in the various labs has its own ventilation system.

"In most buildings you recirculate air, but in the lab it is all fresh air," Kaminski said.
"You don't want to circulate air from one lab to another, so everything is brought in fresh and exhausted, and then it all goes through scrubbers."

Heidi Horejs and Tim Chapin, project managers for J.F. Ahern Co. of Fond du Lac, the firm performing the HVAC, fire protection and process piping work in the lab building, said coordination and communication are essential on this project.

Horejs added: "It is really beneficial that we are doing both the ductwork and piping because we have been able to coordinate that internally. It's not that it's difficult to communicate with subs, but it's easier when it's internal."

Chapin said Ahern has people with experience installing sheet metal and with working on CAD drawings to overlay as much information as possible from all the various systems vying for the limited interstitial space.

"That way we can brainstorm the best way to get it done," he said.

Horejs said Ahern is also installing heating and cooling piping systems for pressurized instrument air; vacuum systems; and hot, cold and ionized water.

"It's quite packed up in those ceilings," she said. "It looks like a lot of space until you start throwing stuff up there."

The project's limited time frame has added pressure to the planning process.

"We don't have four to six months of lead time," Chapin said. "This is a work in progress. We work out a little part of the building and then move on so it all keeps moving forward."

Chapin will oversee the installation of fiberglass reinforced ductwork as well as traditional and stainless steel exhaust ductwork. The stainless steel will have a longer life than traditional galvanized ductwork when exhausting corrosive fumes to air scrubbers.

He added that one of the things that has made the complex project a bit easier has been the fact that Aldrich is such an "educated owner."

"When you present something to them, you have to have a lot of documentation and information so that they can make an informed decision," he said. "They have been in on decisions on all of these systems."

Kaminski estimated that 50 to 60 percent of the project's budget and time will be devoted to the various systems that will be nested in the interstitial space.

It will require a labor-intensive installation process.

"We see ourselves having a large crew on site in the fall," Horejs said. "We will probably have 100 guys out there. We will run a night shift to tone it down a bit."

Kaminski added that the packaging building, in which chemicals are moved from larger to smaller containers, also has an intensive ventilation system.

Another unique feature of the lab building is the blast walls that isolate the various labs in the event of an explosion.

"If a lab should explode, they want only that one lab to explode," Kaminski said. He added that the exterior walls of the structure are designed to blow out in the event of an explosion, while interior walls are reinforced to withstand such an event.

"The interior walls are called blast-limiting walls," he said. "They have rebar every foot and are filled solid with concrete."

Describing the exterior walls as translucent sandwich panels of fiberglass, Kaminski said, "They are fastened with almost a normal fastener, except that the hole the fastener goes through is oversized. The washer just barely catches the hole. In a blast the washers blow through the holes and walls blow out."

He estimated that the wall construction, particularly the interior masonry walls, would add about two months to the project over installation of traditional interior drywall.

Kaminski said the administration building will be completed in early October, followed by the packaging facility in November, the warehouse in December and the lab in March. An Aldrich spokesperson said occupancy will begin before the end of the year and continue through the second quarter of 2005.

"Their moving process will take quite a while," Kaminski added. "They have to transfer and set up a lot of equipment, but they can't lose a day of operation. When they close the facility on St. Paul, they have to be up and running here the next day."

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