The technologies of design, construction and space joined forces at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama recently, as Brasfield & Gorrie tackled incredibly stringent specifications to complete NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) test stands.
Critical to the future of deep space exploration, Test Stands 4693 and 4697 provide the infrastructure needed to test the agency’s liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel tanks, simulating the powerful dynamics of rocket launch and spaceflight and giving NASA engineers essential feedback on performance.
Completed in 2016, each stand sits atop a massive concrete deep foundation system made of an intricate web of reinforcing and embedded steel. The steel towers contain a combined 5,144 tons of structural steel, with the highest topping out at 212 feet.
Brasfield & Gorrie leaned heavily on Revit 2014 and Tekla BIM Sight to model foundations and structure, Navisworks Management for clash detection and BIM 360 Glue for overall site modeling. Additionally, the contractor’s virtual design and construction manager modeled all reinforcing steel, jack stands, tension rods and flex piping to ensure all items could be arranged per the engineer’s design.
It would have been virtually impossible to coordinate such complex foundations without the BIM clash detection process. The completed clash-free model informed not only positioning of items embedded in the foundations, but also the sequence of installation. The management team held a series of weekly meetings with reinforcing and embedded steel suppliers and installers to review and approve the model before construction.
