"Big Mike" Reporting for Duty
P1 Millwrights Fabricate a Special Beam for Flying Pipe Safely into Windows
Innovative Solutions through Innovative Thinking, Safety First, Quality Always, and The Expertise of Many, The Power of One: The process of creating “Big Mike” exemplifies at least three P1 Guiding Principles!
The P1 Millwrights created a special 18 ft. long x 16 inch-wide beam for flying pipe safely into a window, but Plumbing Foreman Mike McCoy says the creation of the beam was really an example of collaboration among multiple P1 trades.
Mike explains the clinical lab job at Children’s Mercy Hospital Adelle Hall Campus currently underway was the catalyst for the beam’s creation. Mike says the build-out of two floors on top of the Outpatient Clinic building presented the challenge of getting all the materials into the building.
“The existing elevators are small and busy with clinic traffic on the floors below,” Mike explained. “JE Dunn gave all trades one week to fly all the material into the windows. This was a tall order, considering there were 2,000+ sheets of sheet rock, multiple truckloads of metal studs, three semi loads of duct, and thousands of feet of steel, copper, and PVC pipe.”
Mike explains that in the past, pipe has been flown into buildings with a “basket” method: putting straps under the pipe.
“However, when you pull the pipe into the building, it pulls the crane hook into building too, which could damage the glass windows above,” Mike said. “The beam creates a much more stable platform for the pipe to slide into the building safely.”
Although they’ve used pipe-lifting beams from other companies in the past, the team is working with Blue Hat Crane for the lifts, and they required anything that P1 made to be engineered by a professional structural engineer.
“With only two weeks until the scheduled crane picks, I contacted Project Manager Wes Tramell for help, confident the P1 Millwrights would meet the challenge,”
Mike said.
Wes worked with Jason Meyer from Meyer engineering, and they had the design complete the next day.
P1 Team Lead Carey Minihan and Warehouse Operations Manager Ben Gannaway approved the building of the beam, with the intention for it to be used on other jobs.
JE Dunn Superintendent Brad Martin also approved the plan to use the beam, and the Millwright shop was cleared to start fabrication.
“Brad asked me what do you call this beam? BIG MIKE?” Mike said. “It stuck, because Brad had labels made by the CMH sign staff and that’s how Big Mike got its name!”
“Working with our other trades is what makes P1 great,” Mike said. “For this job, Pipefitter Foreman Jerry Carey, Sheet Metal Foreman Bryan Tongue, and our crews worked together as a team to get the job done.
