JNE was the design-build contractor for a new warehouse built for a major steel producer in Hamilton, Ontario. The agreement called for the demolition of 120,000 square feet of existing structure, and the construction of a new 150,000-square-foot addition complete with cranes. Also required was the renovation of an existing two-storey, 8,400-square-foot office building, along with on-site infrastructural improvements, and the linking of the office building to the warehouse with a new heated walkway.

Demolition of the superstructure was performed by conventional methods, and the existing concrete floor slab was crushed on-site and the material reused as granular ‘B’ fill. These activities took two months to complete. Foundation construction commenced part-way through the demolition process, once a safe distance between the construction starting point and the demolition activities had been established. This was done in order to accommodate an aggressive construction schedule and to minimize major construction time during the winter months. In the end, this aggressive schedule was realized, and the total construction time from demolition to occupancy was seven months.

One of the many design features of the building is the concrete floor. At the time of placement, the floor was the largest non-reinforced, non-jointed, continuously-poured floor in Ontario. The slab is designed to support a uniformly-distributed load of 2,000 pounds per square foot.