Download KC’s Company Newsletter – March 2018 edition to keep up with KC’s latest news!
2020 will be a historic year for the supertall skyscraper trend when, after years of construction, Jeddah Tower opens in Saudi Arabia. At a staggering 3,280 feet tall, Jeddah Tower will dethrone the Burj Khalifa as the tallest skyscraper in the world, a tall order in a desert wasteland.
While Jeddah Tower will stand hundreds, even thousands of feet above other skyscrapers around the world, the competition does not go unappreciated and overlooked, even in an ever-growing world of supertall and megatall skyscrapers.
So what’s got all of these new buildings fumbling for the clouds? Well, skyscrapers are nothing new. The world’s first skyscraper was built in 1885, standing a mere ten stories above ground: a tremendous feat for that time, but measly to people who are used to seeing 1,000+ foot towers in the sky.
Supertall skyscrapers, on the other hand, didn’t come into business until decades later when the Empire State Building (1,250 feet tall) was constructed. From then on, the rise of supertall skyscrapers commenced and couldn’t be stopped even to this day. While supertall constructions nowadays seems like an endless height contest, they are mainly built to preserve ground space.
Places like China, New York City, and the United Arab Emirates are practically covered with skyscrapers, sporting over 150 per location—and those numbers are only projected to grow. New York City alone has proposed over ten new supertall skyscrapers to be built in the upcoming years, proving that the supertall movement will not phase out any time soon.
Green Building
One of the leading industry concerns for engineering and architectural firms is the problem of climate change. As water levels continue to rise, and as the weight of existing infrastructures bears down on already sinking land, engineers are looking for design solutions that can mitigate past inefficiencies and work towards withstanding and reducing climate change in the future. With nearly 40% of the population living in heavily affected coastal areas worldwide, the need for environmentally conscious engineering is imminent.
What Can Be Done?
Raising energy-use concerns early in the process is essential. By using simulation software, considering sustainability, and thinking of the entire building system, engineering and architectural firms can implement design solutions that tackle sustainability from the very beginning of a project. For example, according to the engineering software company Autodesk, “the movement of fluids (examples include air and water) is a very large cause of energy loss in many systems due to drag. Simulation can help reduce these losses.” Reduced losses mean that less energy is required to power the system, resulting in lower emission levels overall.
Architects can also recommend elevating floor levels, adding moisture-resistant drywall, and installing fixed barriers where needed. Once a building is in use, engineering services teams can help tenants get the most out of efficiency and safety features by using building management system (BMS) and building energy management system (BEMS) tools.
The Bottom Line
Green building, or environmentally sensitive architecture, is benefiting from more government incentives, grant programs, success stories, and better marketing strategies. Architectural and engineering services firms that can design products with environmentally sound features are in demand, and those firms may have the best chance of differentiating themselves in the current market.
Superstorm Sandy damaged Spuyten Duyvil Bridge’s mechanical and electrical systems with high levels of loads and debris. As a subconsultant to Hardesty & Hanover, KC was part of the structural and mechanical team performing an in-depth inspection of the existing structure, platforms, and fender protection of this mechanical bridge. KC also provided the structural steel details for the repair of the damaged steel members and access platforms.
In addition, KC provided surveying services, including the precise location of 64 tapered rollers with the bridge closed, open, and in several partially opened positions; precise location of the bridge center of pivot with the bridge open, closed, and in several partially opened positions, which required establishing fixed points on the bridge to survey and then measuring and calculating the actual bridge pivot center, or measuring and precisely marking the center pivot of the bridge at the deck level and then surveying that as the bridge rotates; track alignment from abutment to abutment; and general bridge survey information, including key elevations.
This project repaired the bridge into good working condition, allowing trains to run over and boats to successfully navigate around this crucial bridge.
The Woodland Acres community comprises of single-family homes and serves approximately 150 residents through 38 residential connections. The Woodland Acres Treatment Facility had been experiencing reduced output from its wells and needed solutions to improve water service to the Woodland Acres community. The development had been serviced by a small water treatment plant and two wells. The wells were no longer able to produce adequate water supply for the area, and attempts to develop new wells in the area had been unsuccessful.
To remedy the issue, KC proposed an expansion of the existing water service from the Town of Wallkill’s Consolidated Water District #1 to serve the Woodland Acres community.
The project extended water via a new 8” PVC C900 water main from a dead end in the Town of Wallkill’s consolidated water district at the end of Orchard Terrace to the Woodland Acres development off Sands Road. The development is now provided with adequate water by the extension, and the project eliminated the need to build a replacement water treatment plant at the site. The project also allowed the Town of Wallkill Water Department to discontinue operation of the Woodland Acres Water Treatment Plant. The project also eliminated the dead-end water line stub in Orchard Hill.
The construction phase involved construction through easements across private property, a NYSDOT road crossing, installation of a meter pit, and tapped connections at each end of the installation.
