Hayward Baker Inc. (HB) is the recipient of the Keystone Award from the Associated General Contractors of America St. Louis. The award was presented to Hayward Baker in the Specialty Contractor/Subcontractor Project $100,000 to $1 million category for the company’s tie-down anchor work on the Locks 27 Lower Sill Project, located on the Mississippi River near Granite City, Ill.
The award was presented to business development manager Jeffrey R. Hill, PE and project manager, Marvin G. Iffert of Hayward Baker's St. Louis area office, and Jay Fowler of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District (the project owner), at AGC's 2011 Construction Awards Gala held on November 3, 2011 in downtown St. Louis.
The Keystone Award is given to honor the achievements of St. Louis construction firms and their employees in building the facilities that support and enhance the quality of life in Greater St. Louis. A Keystone Award recipient exhibits excellence in providing solutions to unique obstacles and challenges specific to their project. The judges selected winners based on the challenges faced; how the job excelled in safety, project communications, workforce and contractor diversity plus the quality of the construction process; and schedule and budget.
The Locks 27 project included de-tensioning 44 existing rock anchors and installing 46 new rock anchors in the lower cross over sills in the main and auxiliary lock. The anchors were drilled 42 feet into the limestone directly below the 5-foot-thick concrete sill floor and had a design load of 190 kips each.
Access and the work platform were very limited. The sills from which the crew worked were approximately 80 feet below the top of the lock and 6 feet wide by 8 feet tall and 110 feet long. Material and equipment were dropped via crane through a 5-foot by 7-foot opening to a lower level 15 feet below the lock surface, then transported laterally through a 150-foot-long narrow hallway, reattached to the crane and finally lowered down the remaining 65 feet through a 2-foot by 3-foot access shaft. The drill was disassembled and reassembled into four pieces four different times.
Commenting on the award Jeffrey Hill said, “Being a Keystone Award Recipient is one of the highest local honors because the Keystone Award is selected through a panel of our peers in the St. Louis Construction industry. Keystone Awards recognize the Project Team for safely completing challenging and difficult construction projects.”
This is the third year in a row that Hayward Baker has won a Keystone Award.
HB also received runner-up recognition in the “Specialty Contractor/Subcontractor Project $1 million to $5 million” category for the company’s work on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Hospital in Fayetteville, AR, entailing the design and construction of underpinning and earth retention for existing and proposed structures in a karstic environment. Hill, along with project manager Maren Fjord, accepted the award.