CAGC recognizes 2018 Pinnacle Award winners:
Enhancing communities and the industry
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
The Carolinas Associated General
Contractors (CAGC) has honored
five community-enhancing con-
struciton projects with 2018 Pinna-
cle Awards. As well, Vaughn Wicker,
retired after many years with the In-
ternational Code Council received a
sixth Pinnacle, the “Build with the
Best” award, in recognition of his
lifetime construction industry career
contributions. The Pinnacle Awards presenta-
tions were made on Jan. 26 at
CAGC’s Annual Convention in
Charleston, SC.
CAGC says Pinnacle entries are
judged on unique aspects and chal-
lenges; special values; project man-
agement; budget and schedule;
and safety performance. The com-
petition is co-sponsored by CPA
firm GreerWalker LLP and the law
firm of Johnston, Allison & Hord.
Here are the awards:
Best building project over
$5 million: Vidant Health —
Cancer Care at Eddie and Jo Alli-
son Smith Tower, Greenville, NC
General contractor: T.A. Loving
Rodgers joint venture
Pinnacle partners: SteelFab and
North State Steel
The T.A. Loving Rodgers joint
venture served as the construction
manager to build this six story,
418,000 sq. ft. cancer center with
96 inpatient rooms, 60 infusion
areas, and 58 clinical exam rooms.
The interior features themes of
flowering trees, calming color
palettes and digital art walls with in-
spirational scenes from North Car-
olina landscapes. As a special
detail, during the design phase,
staff and patient and family advisors
were consulted to help design the
center’s aesthetics. Outside, there
are three healing gardens, offering
calm and quiet atmosphere to fos-
ter meditation and reflection.
More than 200 phasing plans
were carefully calculated, coordi-
nated and executed to integrate the
new cancer care center in the exist-
ing Vidant campus footprint and
systems. The center was built over and
around an existing underground ma-
terial transport and piping tunnel
measuring 40 feet wide. Deep foun-
dations, concrete foundations and
structural steel installations were
completed one side at a time, and
then equipment was demobilized
and moved to the other side. Upon
successful completion, the new
building tied into the existing tunnel
in what is now the basement.
The new center also links to the
existing, fully active operating
rooms. Without disrupting patients
and surgery, T.A. Loving Rodgers
successfully coordinated efforts to
control noise, vibrations and air-
borne particles.
The joint venture combined re-
Vidant Health Cancer Care
4 — February – March 2019 — The North Carolina Construction News
sources for a concise and efficient
joint project safety program with
careful planning, training, enforce-
ment and project safety auditing.
Each crew held a daily job hazard
analysis safety huddle.
Best building project under
$5 million: Cascade Saloon
Redevelopment, Greensboro, NC
General contractor: The Christman
Company Pinnacle partners: Tise-Kiester
Architects and Bennett Preservation
Engineering The Christman Company formed
a public/private partnership with
Preservation Greensboro and its de-
velopment fund and the City of
Greensboro to transform the struc-
ture, listed on the National Register
of Historic Places, into the contrac-
tor’s new regional offices.
Constructed in 1895 as a saloon
and general store, the brick ma-
sonry building had served the com-
munity in many capacities over the
years. But by the 1980s, the struc-
ture had been all but abandoned;
over the next three decades, it fell
into a state of dangerous disrepair.
The saloon has a challenging
downtown site nestled between
four major rail lines.
Renovations to the three-story
building presented significant tech-
nical challenges. The contractor
needed to work between two func-
tioning railway tracks, stabilize the
Cascade Saloon redevelopment
masonry structure, and work with
extremely limited space for materi-
als and deliveries. The solution: a
“building a ship in a bottle” ap-
proach to erect a new support struc-
ture inside the historic brick walls.
The masonry team recycled more
than 1,000 reclaimed bricks from an
interior wall to repair the building.
The three-story, 9,245-sq. ft. build-
ing now serves as home to more
than 70 full-time employees.
Best highway-heavy project under
$5 million: Glendale Pedestrian
Bridge, Glendale, SC
The project consisted of replac-
ing 5,200 rivets with high strength
bolts, replacing all lower chords
with higher grade steel, disassem-
bling and repairing the bearings, re-
placing all significantly corroded
steel, replacing the deteriorated as-
phalt deck with a new timber deck,
and a new paint job complete with
100 percent removal of existing
lead-based paint. The bridge also
received lighting, hand rails, and im-
proved access.
Because plans were not avail-
able, everything had to be field
measured to create the new set of
plans. Additionally, steel sizes,
General contractor: Carolina
Bridge Company, Inc.
The original bridge crossing Law-
son Creek, built in 1903 was re-
placed in 1928 with a Pratt Style
Truss on 1903 rock masonry piers.
The structure was then closed to
vehicle traffic in 1977 and then ulti-
mately abandoned. The challenge:
restoring the 89-year-old bridge
after 40 years of neglect.
Proud To partner with These Lines:
strengths, and fabrication tech-
niques have changed a lot in 89
years; therefore all restoration parts
had to be custom fabricated, requir-
ing structural steel cataloging, field
measuring, shop drawings, and fab-
rication. There were special challenges in
replacing the truss’s lower chords
and rivet replacement. Every con-
nection had to be analyzed to deter-
mine the correct sequence to
remove and replace the original riv-
ets, making sure not to damage the
surrounding steel, which could
cause a collapse. There were no
lost-time injuries.
Glendale Pedestrian Bridge
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The North Carolina Construction News — February – March 2019 — 5