iFLY

Summarize the project's program, features and achievements?

iFLY, Miami represents the latest evolution of the company's design of indoor sky-diving facilities. The steel structure was flanked with two tilt-up wind tunnel towers reaching 65'-08" in height. The embedded steel plates for various connections numbered over 1200, while each tower consisted of five lifts of stacked panels topped off by a roof panel with cast in parapets. The first lift of panels stood plumb and were connected by grouted splice sleeves to cast in place concrete foundation walls anchored to pile caps. Once the first lift was in place, tilt-up erection paused while aluminum wind tunnel components were installed. The next step was erecting the final plumb-set panel, a spandrel on each tower connected to the panels below with grouted splice sleeves. This panel closed the collar surrounding the aluminum wind-tunnel components. The next three lifts of panels were canted inward at 8.1 degrees on the two long sides and 2.8 degrees on the short sides as required for the tuning of the wind tunnel. The final lift of panels were erected individually and engineered to brace to the panels below. Panel erection paused once again while the entire steel structure was erected and attached to the tilt-up walls. This allowed removal of the temporary bracing, followed by dismantling and removal of the scaffolds and supporting platforms from inside the two towers. At this point the upper wind tunnel components and air moving equipment connected the two sides. Finally, the two lid (roof) panels were erected and welded into place from 120' aerial lifts.

What obstacles were overcome related to the schedule, budget, program, specification, site, etc. on this project?

The location of this project was at a busy intersection near downtown Miami. The site afforded us a crane road on one side of the building, a small area to receive deliveries or stage concrete pours, and the temporary casting bed. Due to the limited space, workers parked off-site, and panels were stacked four high on the casting bed. In order to complete the required welding, grouting, caulking, etc. at the interior of the towers, safe access had to be provided. Unfortunately, the early installation of wind tunnel components precluded assembling scaffolding from the building slab. A platform attached to the tilt-up walls above the aluminum elements was designed to support the load of the scaffold, workers, tools and materials.

Please communicate any engineering complexities or unique features of the panel design for this project?

Early in the planning stage there was concern regarding our ability to erect and temporarily brace panels accurately within fractions of a degree at heights over fifty feet while working from scaffold and boom lifts. After much consideration it was decided to preassemble each lift of panels on the ground and erect them as modules. An area of the casting bed was increased in thickness to five inches to accommodate temporary bracing of the panels being preassembled. After all dimensions and angles were double checked, the panel were welded together enabling them to be "flown" as a unit. Panels were engineered to be lifted individually and as a module. Some of these assemblies weighed upwards of 175,000 pounds (without rigging). A 330-ton crawler crane was employed to accomplish this task.