Battery Manufacturing Expansion

The scope of this project was a 230,000-sf expansion, more than tripling the footprint of the existing battery plant and increasing the battery output by nearly sixfold. Design highlights included a 21,000 sf by 60-feet tall lead oxide production and grid pasting tower, significant demolition and modification required in the existing building to allow for relocating of processes within the existing plant and staged incorporation new systems, the support of a substantial and extensive air cleaning system, and the design of a significant amount of trenches, pits, tunnels, embedded equipment and systems to support the manufacturing process. Key challenges in this project include the following:

• Retrofitting the expansion from an existing “building” that was made up of over six different generations of previous additions, including traditional steel, CMU, open-web steel joist, light gage joists, and multiple manufactured buildings
• Large building footprint with multiple isolation joints
• Extremely high design floor loading