Alberici’s Mitch Collins, who performed laser scanning to help install massive steel gates at the Seabrook Gate Complex in New Orleans, has been named one of the Top 25 Newsmakers by a leading construction industry magazine, the Engineering News-Record.
According to ENR, the Top 25 Newsmakers are chosen “for their innovations and achievements, for giving back to the industry and the public, and for going beyond their day-to-day jobs.” Collins and the 24 others — all named on the magazine’s front page — will be honored at a black-tie gala in New York City on April 18.
In its Jan. 28 issue announcing the 25 Top Newsmakers, ENR said, “Collins is an early adopter and expert in the use of laser scanning for precision fabrication and construction control.”
ENR featured Collins in a February 2012 article that profiled his use of Leica GeoSystems Scan Station at the Seabrook project site. The device prepares precise digital measurements of a location by emitting 4,000 laser light beams per second around the device. Using the device, Collins prepared images such as the one above of the two sector gate leaves at Seabrook. Please see an ENR video accompanying the story by clicking here.
The Scan Station helped verify that the gates to be installed in the concrete structure could slide into place within the half-inch tolerance required. The structural steel gates, which Alberici fabricated in its steel shop in St. Louis, weighed as much as 222 tons apiece. In the Jan. 28 article, ENR noted the cost savings that resulted from the laser scanning at Seabrook. The scanning enabled Alberici to make secondary concrete placements earlier in the work schedule.
ENR said: “The schedule-driven project…required tight dimensional control in fabrication and construction. Traditionally, that control would be assured by dry-fitting fabricated parts to place embeds accurately; the parts would then be removed for secondary pours.
“But the contractor decided to have Collins laser-scan parts during fabrication at Alberici’s Hillsdale Fabricators, St. Louis, to ensure they conformed to the design dimensions and model them in 3D. Then, he scanned the install locations in New Orleans to verify fit and guide the secondary [concrete placements]—all as the parts were still being created 600 miles away.”
Collins, 46, is a carpenter and a member of Carpenter’s Local 32 in St. Louis. He has worked for Alberici for more than 15 years.