Jumbo Luperon

The Jumbo Luperon building, the largest in the Dominican Republic, has two levels of underground parking spaces with the capacity for 800 vehicles. The shopping center was built with cast-in-place concrete and elevated floors, as well as concrete columns and beams in both levels of parking.

At one of the entrances, a combination of panels and spandrel panels were constructed for architectural reasons with some panels in cantilever. A gravity retaining wall tunnel was built utilizing Tilt-Up panels to resist land pressure and the truck loading dock.

From the north-south direction, the use of counter fort panels, in combination with the steel roof deck, allow the building to resist Zone 3 seismic loads and Category 5 hurricane wind loads. The first level of the structure’s roof support and beams were built in metal. The store area and first level of parking spaces were constructed on flat slabs, supported by cast-in-place concrete columns and beams. In order to cast these slabs, the entire area was sectioned off, simulating a chessboard formation, which allowed the production of induced joints beginning at the adjacent prefabricated panels. Because of the length of the floor, this chessboard formation allowed the contractor to build two floor levels without transversal expansion joints. Supported on a 20-gage galvanized steel slab, the roof of the building showcases a standing seam type supported on metallic purlings. The entire deck is loaded by steel joists which are supported by frames constructed with Tilt-Up elements as columns. The columns are coupled to the steel beams using bolted connections and a fiberglass insulated thermal layer is between each deck.

To meet the client’s requirements to avoid the use of asphalt waterproofing, this method was suggested by the contractor to prevent joint expansion from thermal changes. From a structural point of view, the standing-seam deck and the 20-gage deck work has a semi-rigid diaphragm that takes the lateral loads (seismic or wind) and transfers them to the metallic frames, working as elements of lateral load collectors transferring them to the sides of the column frames. Because of the longitudinal rigidness of the panels, the double metallic deck of the roof works as a redundant element in the transmission of the lateral loads in this direction.

In addition to parking on the second level of underground space, a 40 x 155-foot tank is used to store water for domestic use and for the fireproof system of the project. Several panels on the sides of the tank were constructed to be used as a lateral load resistant element between floors. All the steel structure, Tilt-Up panels, precast and cast-in-place elements were 3D modelled using last generation BIM. This new tool used for engineering, planning and construction of this building demonstrates how quickly large projects can be accomplished using a fast track method.