Industrial Tilt-up

Michael’s distribution center

Location: Centralia

Owner/developer: Tarragon LLC

Project team: Sierra Construction Co., general and concrete contractor; AHBL, designer and structural engineer; Miles Sand & Gravel Co., ready-mix supplier

The developer, architect/engineer and general contractor were all involved in the early design stages of Michael’s 719,000-square-foot distribution center in Centralia. The 38-foot clear height building was constructed using tilt-up concrete panels on a tight schedule.

The 176 concrete panels that make up Michael’s Centralia distribution center averaged 46 feet tall.

Crews first excavated 150,000 cubic yards of earth to establish the building’s subgrade. Native fills were amended with Portland cement in order to achieve the required compaction, as well as allow construction to continue during the winter.

The building’s 176 site-cast concrete panels averaged 46 feet tall and 9.5 inches thick. Sierra Construction crews formed and poured nearly 28,000 cubic yards of concrete using an on-site batch plant. Concrete work included steel-pin-reinforced 8- and 10-inch-thick slabs on grade and 150,000 square feet of concrete truck courts and bogey strips.

Other components of the project included cast-in-place truck dock pits, heavy-duty dock levelers, truck restraints, dock seals and doors. A 5 million-pound steel roof system topped off the project.