On Thursday this week, we were fortunate enough to be given
a tour of the GM Fort Wayne Assembly Plant, which Barton Malow is working on.
After some minor setbacks upon arrival in Fort Wayne on Wednesday, we all
checked into the hotel and then went out to dinner with Glenn and Derek. I had blackened
shrimp and rice, which was very tasty. After dinner, we went out and networked
for a while, and played a few games of pool.
For the tour of the plant, we started by going over the site
specific safety procedures, then Glenn told us a little bit about what he was
involved in on the site. He explained what each of the additions was going to
be used for, and how they had to accommodate GM’s production schedule by
working in phases to make sure that GM always had loading docks available. We
saw a concrete pour, looked at the roof, checked out all of the new steel that
had just been put up, and saw some of the new retention ponds that they had
just finished.
I learned quite a bit about concrete thanks to Gus; he
explained to us what each of the tools and machines was doing, as well as an
overview of the finishing and curing processes. One interesting thing that we
saw was that their concrete mix did not require rebar because they mixed steel
reinforcing right into it. The small pieces of steel were designed to interlock
and create a mesh-like structure within the slab that greatly increases the
weight capacity of the concrete. They were pouring the concrete in massive
sections, and it was amazing to see it in action.
As promised, I have a few pictures. And I would like to
thank Yesi, Alex, Jon, Gus, Glenn and Derek for setting the trip up for us. I
had a great time, and I’m already looking forward to the next site visit at the
Little Caesar’s Arena!
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| Concrete being poured |
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| Interior of one of the additions |
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| Group photo on the roof |
Great post Chris!
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