Months before the Portland Aerial Tram became visible
from Interstate 5, a 100-person crew in Vancouver, Wash., was working
around the clock fabricating the steel components for the upper station
tower at Oregon Health and Science University and the intermediate
tower located off SW Macadam Ave., in Portland.
That work crew represented some of the finest craftsmen and women
at Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 — all of them employees at Thompson
Metal Fab Inc.
Thompson played a somewhat unusual role as general contractor for
both the fabrication and erection work. The company subcontracted
the actual building of the towers to Carr Construction. (An article
featuring the topping out of the upper station tower by members of
Iron Workers Local 29 at Carr Construction was featured in the Sept.
15 issue of the NW Labor Press.)
“For the most part, fabrication went very well. Our guys did
an outstanding job. There were very few glitches,” said John
Rudi, president of Thompson Metal.
Design changes and coordination problems early on had put the tram
project five weeks behind schedule. Once those issues were worked
out, Thompson’s crew was able to make up ground so that by the
time the upper station was topped out on Aug. 31, it was back on schedule
for a tentative opening on Dec. 15.
The 196-foot intermediate tower (pictured above left) was built in
three pieces — each with a complex series of welding challenges
— the largest of which was the foot, measuring 90 feet long
by 33 feet wide at the bottom and weighing 130 tons. As the Daily
Journal of Commerce noted, “The tower was built of five-eighths-inch
plate steel with T-stiffeners attached inside to resist the heavy
twisting loads that the tram will exert. Full penetration welds were
used wherever the pieces of steel were spliced together.”
The upper station tower (pictured above) was even more complex, featuring
four tiers and a steel superstructure on top. The footing required
78 drilled shafts averaging 70 feet long each and 1,500 cubic yards
of concrete.
“It was a difficult fabrication project,” Rudi told the
NW Labor Press. “It was very thick steel with a lot of heat
input. It required a lot of skill to hold the tolerances. There wasn’t
a lot of room to make adjustments in the field. Our guys had to make
it right in the shop.”
Curtis Anderson, field operations manager for Carr Construction, said
the intermediate tower had to be within one inch of plumb. “We
came in at a quarter-inch. I can’t say enough good things about
the fabrication work.”
Mike Mayes, president of Mayes Testing Engineers, told the DJC that
the tram project is one that “people swell up with pride thinking
they were even involved. Portland doesn’t have an icon. I think
this is going to be it.”
