Years ago, as a young Engineer, I was called late in the afternoon on a Friday. It was a friend, George, who was an established architect/engineer in Waukesha. He explained that he has a client with an emergency. The client was Steiner Corporation-American Industrial on South 76th Street in West Allis.
The client had a large water storage tank above the roof. It was supported by (4) columns that protruded through the roof from the first floor below. It seemed that over time, the structural columns supporting the tank had rusted to the point of starting to yield. The tank which held approximately 13,500 gallons (108,000#) was starting to tip.
Now, I was not the only person called in to investigate this situation. There were two other companies called in to evaluate this situation. They were both large construction companies in the Milwaukee area.
The situation was made worse by the fact that the tank was towards the back of the property with no access. The back of the property was a railroad track. While the other companies were explaining to the client that a special permit would be required to access the railroad property. And with that permission in hand, there would be the possibility to run a crane to the location.
I had a different approach. I requested permission to evaluate the situation from the roof.
Now the client saw no benefit in my request and did not want anyone near the tank, however, after a while I was allowed to run up the scuttle ladder and look the situation over.
The building was an old masonry structure. It was apparent that there had been a number of additions over the years. It was also apparent that some of those old parapet walls may come in handy. I retreated back down the ladder and told the client that I would be back to stabilize the tank.
I do not know what they thought of that statement, however, it was getting late and no one else had a suggestion. I returned an hour later with one employee, and a pick-up truck loaded with a floor jack, few wide flange beams, and a pile of masonry soaps.
It wasn’t long before the tank was safely leveled and secured.
Long story short – Early the next week, we were able to do the necessary repairs to the columns by cutting them off and replacing the lower half with new stainless steel wide flange members. Problem solved.
That situation opened up the opportunity to continue working with that client for years. We built them a wastewater treatment building at that site. They later purchased a 98,846 sq ft building that Kahl Construction expanded and extensively remodeled for them.
