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Structure Awards Show Coating's Best

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2013


SAN ANTONIO—The daring, the durable, the difficult and the dazzling took center stage Monday (Jan. 14) at SSPC 2013, as the coatings society opened its annual show with the Seventh Annual Structure Awards, honoring excellence in coatings work.

The Structure Awards and JPCL author awards were the highlight of opening day at SSPC 2013 in San Antonio. Day One of the conference also included SSPC's annual meeting as well as meetings of the Standards Review Committee, Coatings Steering Committee, and Surface Preparation Steering Committee.

Hundreds of attendees and exhibitors arrived in San Antonio, primed for four days of technical sessions, panel discussions, committee meetings, special events and networking opportunities. First-day festivities culminated in the annual Welcome Reception, sponsored by Carboline.

But it was the Structure Awards, as always, that showed the breadth and depth of today's protective, marine and commercial coatings challenges and ingenuity.

The winners, which are listed here, will also be featured in a photo essay in an upcoming issue of JPCL.

George Campbell Award

The George Campbell Award, given to three recipients, honors the completion of difficult or complex industrial or commercial coatings projects.

These difficulties may include harsh or extreme environmental conditions, strict time constraints, limited access or high traffic, complex structural components, or coordination with multiple trades or subcontractors.

The award is named for the late George Campbell, founder of Campbell Painting Company in New York.

Trails Arch Bridge: Topock, AZ

Owner: Kinder Morgan/PG&E Corporation
Contractor/Applicator: The Brock Group LLC
Coating Supplier: Carboline

The historic Trails Arch bridge runs over the Colorado River and required the design of a safe and proper access to facilitate environmental compliance while also maintaining public access to the waterway.

Joel Harry, Site Manager, Brock Services LLC
Lead abatement was required for 150,000 square feet of steel on the Trails Arch Bridge, which generated one million pounds of non-hazardous waste.

Joel Harry, Site Manager, Brock Services LLC

Lead abatement was required for 150,000 square feet of steel on the Trails Arch Bridge, which generated one million pounds of non-hazardous waste.

The project required a detailed plan to ensure safety and quality, as the bridge called for the abatement of 150,000 square feet of lead paint. This generated more than one million pounds of non-hazardous waste, due to the use of a calcium silicate-based additive mixed in the abrasive to encapsulate the lead.

Other challenges included weight limits on the bridge and difficulties with scaffolding access equipment. Environmental containment was also critical to the project's success.

BC Place: Vancouver, British Columbia

Owner: BC Pavilion Corporation
Contractor/Applicator: Certified Coatings Specialists Inc.
Coating Supplier: AkzoNobel

Bound by a tight schedule and working with other trades, the contractor renovated BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.

As shop-coated steel arrived and was installed on site, it was inspected, repairs were recommended, and required repair procedures were implemented.

BC Pavilion Corp.

After shop-coated steel was installed, a team of inspectors immediately identified necessary repairs and repair plans.

Before surface preparation or painting, a CCS NACE Level 3 Inspector inspected the surface area to determine the extent of repairs and the repair procedure.

Repair areas to bare metal were bristle blasted to create a profile on the substrate to SSPC-SP 11, then wiped with thinner. Interplus 365 was then applied immediately.

A team of 70 worked to complete all external structural steel, including the masts. Inspection and repair included using rope access techniques at heights of more than 300 feet above ground level, as well as swing stages and specially designed access platforms.

Areas that were to bare metal were solvent-wiped and received one coat of Interplus 365. Once repair areas obtained the required DFT, the entire steel structure was solvent-wiped to SSPC-SP 1. A coat of Interfine 878 was applied on primed areas, and then a second coat was applied to the repair area. The entire structure was given a uniform topcoat.

Miller Park Stadium: Milwaukee, WI

Owner: Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball District, Milwaukee Brewers
Contractor/Applicator: BASE Group
Coating Supplier: The Sherwin-Williams Company

Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers' Major League Baseball stadium, had some high-level coating needs. The project included a section of trusses that supports the fan-shaped retractable roof and the metal ceiling panels that cover the underside of the roof.

Both sections were about 270 feet above ground level, with no established maintenace or access plan. The facility's owners also wanted to avoid the disruptive and costly nature of traditional scaffolding or swing staging, so the work was completed using rope access techniques.

BASE Group

Painters at Miller Park Stadium had to work using rope access because the ballpark's owners did not want to use traditional scaffolding and swing staging.

The challenges included:

  • Heights and difficult access to the steel being painted;

    TMI Coatings, Inc.
    base painters
  • Need to work with the roof opened and closed, which moved trusses hundreds of feet in mid-air when closed; and

  • Limited time frame to complete the job between the end of MLB playoffs and the start of cold weather.

William Johnson Award

The William Johnson Award is named for a late consultant with KTA-Tator Inc., whose work in coatings formulation, failure analysis, and surface preparation was instrumental in advancing the industry.

The award, given to two recipients, recognizes outstanding achievement in aesthetic merit in industrial or commercial coatings work. Criteria include color, gloss, texture, and how the coating complements the environment while enhancing the structure.

The coating may also represent a theme, an object, or a specific graphic design.

NLB Corporation
APV Engineered Coatings

Hollywood Water Tank: Hollywood, FL

Owner: City of Hollywood, FL
Contractor/Applicator: Utility Service Co. Inc.
Coating Supplier: Tnemec Company Inc.

This project involved the repainting of a one million-gallon elevated water tank. The tank was also chosen as Tnemec's 2011 Tank of the Year.

Tnemec Company

The Hollywood water tank, featuring an intricate mural, previously received Tnemec's Tank of the Year Award.

Tarps manufacturing, Inc.
Quikspray, Inc.

The tank's exterior was prepared to SSPC-SP 7/NACE No. 4, Brush-Off Blast Cleaning. It received a prime coat of a modified polyamine epoxy, followed by an aliphatic acrylic polyurethane, and finished with an advanced fluoropolymer topcoat.

Two coats of fluoropolymer were used for the lettering and mural, which features loggerhead sea turtles and fish in an ocean scene. Nineteen colors were used in the mural.

The Earthoid: Germantown, MD

Owner: Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
Contractor/Applicator: Horizon Brothers Painting Company
Coating Supplier: The Sherwin-Williams Company

This water tank is known as the Earthoid because it is painted with the image of Earth as seen from space. The 100-foot-tall, two-million-gallon tank is on the campus of Montgomery College in Germantown, MD, and was first painted in 1980.

Tracy W. Holmes, Sr. Civil Engineer, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission

This Maryland water tank was painted in 1980 to represent the Earth from space.

Its exterior paint scheme is based on a National Geographic globe. When it was painted, it was a landmark project in water storage and won the Steel Tank of the Year Award from the Steel Plate Fabricators Association.

The work included complete abrasive blasting and repainting the exterior and interior of the tank with AWWA D102 standard systems.

Charles G. Munger Award

Named for the late Charles G. Munger, the award honors an outstanding industrial or commercial coatings project that demonstrates the long service life of the original coating.

(The structure may have had spot repairs or overcoating with the original coating still intact.)

Hallidie Building: San Francisco, CA

Owner: The Albert Group Inc. (owner's representative)
Contractor/Applicator: Abrasive Blasting & Coating
Coating Supplier: Tnemec Company Inc.

This project was a curtain wall remediation project on San Francisco's Hallidie Building, the second building in the U.S. to feature a glass curtain wall. Built in 1917-18 by architect Willis Polk, it is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is considered one of the most historic places on the West Coast.

Annie K. Lo, Project Manager, McGinnis Chen Associates Inc.

The Hallidie Building, in San Francisco, was the second building in the U.S. with a glass curtain wall.

Surface preparation was to exact SSPC standards; the coatings selected were a urethane organic zinc-rich primer, aliphatic urethane intermediate, and fluoropolymer finishes.

The entire restoration took 12 years.

E. Crone Knoy Award

Named for E. Crone Knoy, the late founder and president of Tank Industry Consultants, this award stands for coatings work that demonstrates innovation, durability or utility.

Outstanding achievement may include excellence in craftsmanship, execution of work, or the use of state-of-the-art techniques and products to creatively solve a problem or provide long-term service.

This year's two winners are Wind Tower Segments and the Nestle Plant Expansion.

Wind Tower Segments: Give, Denmark

Owner: Welcon A/S
Contractor/Applicator: Muehlhan A/S
Coating Supplier: Hempel A/S

This was the world's first fully automated, robotic-based coating process for complete tower sections, project officials said. Internal and external surfaces of steel sections for onshore and offshore wind towers were coated with several layers of high-level corrosion protection systems by means of robotic devices.

The project started in August 2011 and was completed in May 2012.

Muehlhan A/S

Robots were used for both internal and external wind tower painting, which will help meet future demands of wind tower manufacturing, especially for offshore applications. The project took 10 months to complete.

Officials said the project introduced an innovative approach for an economic, environmentally friendly, and high-quality coating procedure to meet future demands of wind tower manufacturers.

Officials reported a reduction in both paint consumption and VOC emissions of up to 25 percent. There was also an improvement of coating thickness distribution, with a reduction of up to 50 percent in standard deviation of DFT distributions.

Nestle Plant Expansion: Ft. Smith, AR

Owner: Nestle Nutrition
Contractor/Applicator: Coatings Unlimited Inc.
Coating Supplier: The Sherwin-Williams Company

The Nestle Plant Expansion project was an $89.9 million project that added a cereal manufacturing line to the 900,000-square-foot plant.

The contractor employed about 30 highly experienced specialty coating applicators, along with specialty craftsmen who profiled and resurfaced more than 170,000 square feet of concrete walls and ceilings to bring surfaces into the struct compliance of a Food and Drug Administration-regulated facility.

This project started Nov. 15, 2011, and was completed Nov. 30, 2012.

Billy Myers, Project Manager, Coatings Unlimited Inc.

Strict guidelines for a FDA-regulated facility required all surfaces to be free of any defects, such as pinholes, drips, and sags.

Concrete floors, walls, and ceilings were prepared in accordance with ICRI CSP 2. Epoxy mortar was used to float the entire surface area of walls and ceilings to remove any imperfections in the concrete. The material was delivered to the surface using rotor stator pumps and troweled tight. In all, 12,500 bags of epoxy concrete repair materials were installed, and 70,000 square feet of process flooring was hand-troweled.

Additionally, 200 tons of abrasive and more than11,000 gallons of coating materials were used.

A lint-free, short-nap roller was used to apply the coatings, which were then back-rolled to ensure that all pinholes were positively compressed with coating.

The aesthetics of the finished work were extremely important, and work at this site required surfaces to be free of pinholes, runs, sags, drips, and foreign debris to meet the strict requirements of a highly hygenic surface.

Strict specifications called for using hot and cold dehumidification equipment.

Military Award

Now in its third year, the Military Coatings Project Award of Excellence recognizes exceptional coatings work performed on U.S. military ships, structures, or facilities.

(EX) USS Iowa, BB-61: San Pedro, CA

Owner: Pacific Battleship Center
Contractor/Applicator: Bay Ship & Yacht
Coating Supplier: Ameron/PPG

Pacific Battleship Center

Painting this World War II-era battleship had to be completed in less than three months, and all work was done while the vessel was in the water.

This project involved the preservation and recoating of the (EX) USS Iowa, an 887-foot-long World War II-era battleship that had received little or no maintenance for more than 20 years.

With a tight schedule of about two and a half months, both the contractor and crew were under pressure to meet the deadline for towing the vessel to Los Angeles.

Work included:

  • Preparation and coating of the hull from the waterline up to the rail (41,000 square feet);

  • Rinsing, water blasting, priming, and coating about 133,000 square feet, including masts, funnels and all decks; and

  • Preserving waterways and CHT tank preservation.

All work was done with the vessel in the water, which complicated the project due to environmental concerns. In addition, the ship's superstructure was complex with 11 exposed decks that each required extensive scaffolding.

A two-component, marine-style epoxy coating system was used, as well as a single-component acrylic polysiloxane. The latter was chosen for its overall durability and ability to maintain its sheen during an extended service life.

The flag was restored with the support of Ameron/PPG and volunteers, crew, and contractors who willingly gave their time to the project.

The project was started March 5, 2012, and completed May 19, 2012.

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Tagged categories: AkzoNobel; Ameron; Awards and honors; Building envelope; Carboline; Commercial Buildings; Containment; Hempel; Historic Structures; Marine Coatings; PPG; Program/Project Management; Sherwin-Williams; SSPC; SSPC 2013; The Brock Group; Tnemec


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