Tilt-up Construction:
An Old Idea, With New Innovations  The
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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