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New Innovations Tilt-up Concrete Construction ArticlesAn Old
Idea for General Contractors With New InnovationsThe basic principle behind
tilt-up construction - constructing walls horizontally, on the ground, and then
lifting them into place - is not a new idea. Evidence exists that some buildings
constructed during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages used this approach. More
recently, American settlers in the 1800s gathered for "barn raisings"
where they constructed the wood walls for their buildings and tipped them up into
place. The 20th century marked the true beginnings of modern tilt-up construction.
The development of concrete reinforced with rebar in the early 1900s allows builders
to create tilt-up commercial structures as we think of them today: One- to two-story
structures built with walls comparable in width to those created with other methods
of construction. Even with this innovation, tilt-up construction did not
gain wide acceptance until after World War II, when the mobile crane was first
developed. The mobile crane allowed builders far greater ability to lift the massive
panels into place, regardless where the job site happened to be. At about this
time, ready-mix concrete was introduced to the industry, making tilt-up an even
more viable alternative. These new technologies occurred at precisely the
right time. The late 1940s brought about a post-war boom in the construction of
manufacturing and industrial facilities across the United States. Innovation,
timing, and the need for large, warehouse-styled buildings opened the door for
tilt-up construction. The three factors combined to encourage general contractors
to embrace tilt-up as an economical means of delivering quality projects that
meet even the most demanding specifications and schedules. Over the years,
industry experts have continued to refine and enhance the tilt-up process, allowing
general contractors and design-build construction managers to drive greater capabilities
and creativity in its use. In 1986 the Tilt-up Concrete Association (TCA) was
created to establish processes and standards to ensure continued growth in quality
and acceptance for this method of construction. Tilt-up concrete construction
has since been used in buildings as large as 1.7 million square feet, with individual
panels reaching as high as 91 feet and weighing 150 tons. The TCA reports that
15% of all industrial buildings in the U.S. were created using tilt-up construction.
It is growing at an annual rate of almost 20% and is used in over 650 million
square feet of new building construction each year. In Texas and other sunbelt
states, tilt-up accounts for as much as 75% of new one-story commercial building
construction. General contractors, design build contractors and builders in Mexico,
Canada and Australia are also using tilt-up concrete construction on an increasingly
frequent basis. Return
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