Daniels & Daniels has been a Star Pre-Engineered Metal Building (PMB) dealer since 1986. This year, the company was given the opportunity to expand our pre-fabricated offerings to include the extremely innovative Olympic Folding Building, manufactured by Dogwood Industries out of Seattle, Washington.  The design requirements for this MCAS Cherry Point contract included infrastructure and utilities for a Pre-engineered Panelized Metal Relocatable Building (PPMRB) to house the Laser Shock Peening (LSP) process for the F-35 Airframes. LSP is a surface treatment technique meant to improve fatigue performance of metals. FRC East needed a temporary facility to support this activity for a minimum of 60 months. We knew it was a unique project and one that would certainly challenge our team. However, it was also an opportunity to learn about a new construction process and add to our experience as a firm.

D&D was awarded the contract on September 30th, 2018 and given just six short months to complete the design, have the building fabricated, shipped and installed. The project team worked to put together the best strategy for completing the project and after much analysis decided to self-perform the installation of the buildings under the direction of Eric Jones, a superintendent with extensive steel erection experience.

The project team spent hours researching the product, watching installation videos and working with Dogwood representatives to ensure they knew all they could about the Folding Building before delivery. In preparation, a concrete slab was placed and prepped to receive the building. Several 18-wheelers left from Washington and carried the three stacked buildings across the country to Cherry Point, where the crane was ready to go. The crane picked up each piece from the ridge, the exterior walls unfolded, and the entire unit swung into place.  The D&D crew then bolted the structure to the concrete slab. The utility connections came pre-installed within the panels and connected to local utilities in a way to allow for relocation. These utilities include fire suppression and alarm systems, lighting, environmental control to minimize particulate in the LSP area, and climate control to prevent equipment overheating and protect equipment from freezing conditions.