By The Daily Reporter
Hunzinger is proud that two of our projects won Top Projects Awards from The Daily Reporter. The awards recognize outstanding achievements by Wisconsin builders, owners, engineers, and architects. The Daily Reporter honored 50 outstanding construction projects during its 25th annual Top Projects event. More than 400 industry leaders attended the event held at the Ingleside Hotel in Pewaukee.
Hunzinger took home 2 Top Project awards for the CNH Lakeside Testing Facility in Racine and the GEA Repair, Logistics, Assembly, Production and Training Facility in Janesville.
It was a very exciting night! Our friends and team members from Zimmerman Architectural Studios joined representatives of GEA and the project team and our CNH team was joined by representatives of Lee Mechanical, Total Mechanical Inc., and CNH Industrial.
When CNH decided to relocate a testing facility and 55 jobs from a site in Illinois to its Racine campus, significant work was needed to prepare two vacant buildings for the new work.
Hunzinger Construction served as the project’s general contractor, renovating the former tractor-building factories into state-of-the-art testing facilities. Since there was a lot of heavy equipment involved, the team used extensive computer modeling using Hunzinger’s trademarked Virtual Design and Construction Coordination process on the buildings’ foundations to see how they would interact or conflict with new and existing machine foundations, trenches, and structural columns.
When it came to the building’s ceiling, multiple cranes – both new ones and others moved from the Illinois location – needed to be installed at different hook heights. “Since it was an older building, we had to make sure there was enough room for their clearance,” said senior project manager Jon Sheahan.
“It took a lot of preplanning and using computer modeling for clash detection. We had to make some accommodations to make it work.”
For example, some HVAC equipment needed to be placed on the building’s roof since there was no room indoors due to the cranes. The building is used to test heavy tractor engines and soundproof view areas needed to be created, requiring not only soundproof walls but also windows and doors, Sheahan said.
From the start, Hunzinger Construction knew the new GEA Repair, Logistics, Assembly, Production and Training Facility in Janesville would be a challenge – it needed to be a net-zero facility.
“We took numerous steps to get to that net-zero goal,” said Andie Rodenkirch, a senior project manager with Hunzinger.
Headquartered in Germany, GEA is one of the world’s largest suppliers of systems and components to the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. The 86,000 SF building features a high-efficiency heating and cooling system, solar panels, LED lighting, electric car charging stations, recycling, and water reuse system. We needed to divert at least 70% of construction waste and we were able to divert 235.52 metric tons or 87%, which was incredible,” Rodenkirch said.
GEA has a state-of-the-art building management system, which allows the company to track and monitor different systems to make sure the building runs efficiently.
“The building has a tight envelope to halt any infiltration of air,” Rodenkirch said. “It’s not going to lose energy.”
The solar panels on the building’s roof and ground produce enough energy to power the entire building.
The project had zero lost time accidents. Rodenkirch said Hunzinger has an open-door policy where anyone can come forward and report what they believe is a safety issue. He added Hunzinger also developed and implemented project-specific safety plans, held weekly safety meetings and conducted daily safety checks.
“Our first priority on every job is safety,” he said.
