CME’s Buffalo Division started providing services on the New Student Housing Project located on the Buffalo State University Campus in Buffalo, New York, in December 2009.

The Student Housing project is just beginning with approximately 330 steel piles being driven to end-bearing on bedrock at depths ranging from 45’ to as much as 90’. The project consists of an eight story Tee-shaped building with approximately 38,347 square feet per floor. The new apartment style dormitory will feature a total of 507 beds situated in 124 four-bed apartments, each with single rooms and full kitchens as well as a main floor common space with laundry and activities. Project cost is estimated to be $48 million with completion estimated in the Spring 2011. Inspections will include normal CMT testing in accordance with the general specifications as well as Special Inspections in accordance with the Building Code of New York State.

CME’s scope of service includes monitoring steel pile installation and building pad preparation, compaction testing of engineered fills, cast in-place concrete testing, inspections of formwork and reinforcing bar placement, masonry special inspections including cold weather construction requirements and fabrication of test specimens. In addition, CME is responsible for structural steel testing and inspection, which includes Ultrasonic Testing during the pile and structural framing, plus Spray-Applied Fireproofing, intumescent paint, floor flatness / floor levelness, and moisture vapor emissions tests. Concrete foundations are planned to begin the week of February 01, 2010.

CME Resident Special Inspector: Norm Juerk, EIT

CME Supervisor, Special Inspections: Gordon Toleman, P.E.

CME Principal Engineer: Marcus A. Rotundo, P.E.

CME’s Southern Tier Division is currently working on 3 major projects on 3 different college campuses in the Elmira and Ithaca areas.  

The New Dormitory (Meier Hall) at Elmira College is nearly complete.  CME’s Clifford Gould II provided full time Special Inspections at this project from July 2008 to April 2009.  The New Dormitory, designed in Collegiate Gothic style to complement the existing campus, includes 61,000 gross square feet over 5 stories above grade and a partial basement.  The steel framed structure incorporates load-bearing concrete block walls, a basement mat foundation, and gargoyles perched on the façade.   CME’s scope of services included soil bearing grade approval, monitoring of proofrolling of subgrades, compaction testing of engineered fills, cast-in-place concrete batch plant and field testing, special inspections of formwork, reinforcing bar and placement methods, masonry special inspections including cold weather construction requirements and fabrication of test specimens for mortar cubes, grout prisms, and block prisms, structural steel examinations including UT testing and visual inspections by CME’s CWI staff.   Other Special Inspections provided by CME included Spray-Applied fireproofing, including intumescent paint, anchorage pull testing, floor flatness and levelness testing, and moisture vapor transmission tests.   The cast-in-place concrete testing started out full force, placing 771 cubic yards concrete for the basement mat foundation between 5:00 pm and 2:00 am on August 21, 2009.  CME provided 6 field Technicians (1 in the Batch Plant) and cast 80 test cylinders during the overnight placement.  ACI 214 Recommended Practice for Evaluation of Strength Test Results of Concrete confirms CME’s superior quality services with within-test variation to be Excellent to Very good for the 3 primary concrete mixes used on this project.

Client:                          Elmira College
Architect:                     QPK Design
Consulting Eng.:       Sack & Associates
Special Inspector:     CME Associates, Inc.

Resident Special Inspector:      Clifford Gould II
Supervisor Special Insp.:           Gordon Toleman, P.E. 

K to 12 School Additions and Renovations

Fairport CSD is adding on to and renovating seven schools simultaneously.  CME is working hand in hand with Owner, Fairport CSD; Architect, Clark Patterson Lee; and Construction Managers, The Buckley Group and The Pike Company.  Mark Lenzi, ICC is CME’s lead inspector for this project which requests up to five inspectors on a given day.  CME’s greatest challenges for this project include managing the ever changing scheduled assignments, maintaining the NCDD (Non Conformance, Deviation and Deficiencies) list, documenting deviations from project documents and continuous communication with the Registered Design Professional and Construction Managers.  All agree that CME is the eyes and ears for the Project Management Team  We are enjoying full support and appreciation for our diligence on this project.

Now that we are into October, our workload for the NYSDOT Region 4 has seen a steady increase.  The first half of the year was slower than usual despite talks of Economic Stimulus Money that was planned to flood the industry.  Dan Stern and the DOT inspectors are providing services day and night at concrete and asphalt batch plants.  Keep up the great work, team.  You can get a good night’s sleep in December!

Water Infiltration through Masonry Walls

Gordon Toleman, P.E. is leading an investigation at a Retail Town Center for the Developer.  Masonry walls are experiencing water penetration into several occupied and unoccupied spaces at the newly constructed Center.  The investigation included inspection document review, project document review, material submittal review, and post-construction testing and monitoring.  The root cause stems from porous block and a lack of water proofing installation.  These, factored with wind driven rain and snow events causes excessive water penetration to the interior finished space and excessive, unsightly efflorescence.  Gordon is continuing to work with the Developer on an economical solution to the problem.

Proof Testing – Anchor Pull Testing

CME’s Rochester Team of Bob Dalheim and Eric Ford successfully performed reinforcing steel proof load testing recently at the Erie Canal Lock 32 site.  The contractor contacted CME on a Wednesday afternoon to see if CME could provide the services on short notice.  Bob made a site visit that afternoon and we started the testing the next morning.  On the previous day, a testing laboratory from Buffalo had attempted to perform the load testing but was stopped by the NYSDOT Engineer in Charge, after several of the #7 reinforcing bars were severely bent.   After four hours of trying, four bars had been tested and three of the bars were damaged.

The Engineer in Charge was pleased with CME’s setup, current equipment calibration and pace of testing.  CME successfully completed the testing in six hours which included 11 #7 vertical bars, 14’ high and 8 #5 bars installed approximately 20 degrees from horizontal.  The contractor was able to maintain its schedule constructing the retaining wall and CME left a good impression with the Client and the NYSDOT.

© CME Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2009.
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