After a tornado struck a manufacturing plant in South Carolina, Walbridge’s team arrived to support the customer in assessing damage and prioritizing restart.
Walbridge, its self-perform teams and designer Carlson Design Group were given the task of restoration of the facility to restart operations, then restore the facility to pre-incident conditions.
To make matters more complicated, the COVID-19 pandemic struck only weeks earlier across the U.S., causing our team to institute special precautions and safety measures to lead to a safe, effective construction effort.
Although U.S. auto manufacturing was shut down due to COVID-19, there were concerns the damage would impact the availability of crucial parts for several auto manufacturer’s vehicles.
Within 19 days, the customer’s restart began as the project team built out a temporary roof and deck repair with 16,000 square feet of roof and 150,000 square feet of temporary scaffold building with conditioned air, compressed air, power and data to process equipment.
Due to this rapid response, there was minimal impact on the automotive companies, and parts were available for manufacturing after reopening safely.
After the restart, the team shifted focus and completed the full restoration, including roof replacement, HVAC and the facility’s structural repair.