Brasfield & Gorrie performed sound testing daily, with results dictating the type and duration of demolition activities. Sometimes if rebar touched other rebar, vibrations would carry farther than expected, and the team had to readjust.

Brasfield & Gorrie found saw cutting and core drilling less obtrusive and used these methods when possible—even when they adversely affected the schedule—because animal health concerns took precedent.

“Our demo process took at least twice as long [as expected],” McKeen says.

While the team did everything possible to anticipate the animals’ needs, there were some surprises. For instance, shadows from the crane over the belugas’s skylight upset the animals, so the crane could not be used during the hours it would produce shadows.

Excavating required some blasting to remove rock. The construction team timed both blasts with the husbandry staff, so that the animals remained safe. The team placed deep caissons, 20 to 60 ft down to rock, under the tank mats.

Brasfield & Gorrie self-performed the 30,000 cu yds of concrete work, which included four elevated bottom tank slabs and slabs to tie the tank walls into the next wall section. The company placed two wall crews and one elevated slab crew to work concurrently within a 20,000-sq-ft footprint with two tower cranes.

The company installed eight precast hanging tank sumps and five precast raker beams at the lower seating. Using precast raker beams saved $100,000 and three weeks on the schedule.

The team built a temporary, truss-supported scaffold system over the pools and seating area to allow for the high work to be performed more safely while tank waterproofing activities and rock work were ongoing concurrently below. Doubling up of these activities effectively shaved three months off of the project schedule.

That extra time came in handy when the aquarium moved up the date it would need the dolphin pools. That required some interesting adjustments to the finish work.

“Everything had to be on a managed process,” McKeen says. For instance to install conduit, all of the holes would have to be drilled simultaneously, so the animals only felt it once. Alternately, crews could spread the drilling over a long period of time, so the mammals could acclimate to it. The team vented out any smells and used low-VOC paints and other materials.

Consequently, Brasfield & Gorrie made a huge effort to finish as much as possible before the dolphins arrived.

Brasfield & Gorrie obtained a final certificate of occupancy in June and then completed some finish items. The aquarium will open in 2011.

“The award is a nice recognition for the work they did,” Kimmel says. “As hard as this project was, this team made it look easy. They deserve a lot of kudos.”

Key Players

Owner: Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta
General Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie, Kennesaw, Ga.
Program Manager: Heery International, Atlanta
Architect: PGAV, St. Louis
Civil Engineer: Horizon Engineering, Marietta, Ga.
Structural Engineer: Uzun & Case Engineers, Atlanta
MEP Engineer: X-nth, Maitland, Fla.