It’s been called the largest automotive manufacturing plant in the United States for the amount of units produced on its assembly lines. Ford Motor Company’s Kansas City Assembly Plant (KCAP), located in nearby Claycomo, Mo. is best known for turning out Ford’s flagship pickup truck, the F-150.
- Walbridge has built facilities at KCAP for more than 20 years. Its most recent work includes:
- Extensive site work and infrastructure construction
- Installation of utilities, construction of foundations to support extensive press, process equipment and various mechanical and electrical support systems
- Construction of a new 434,750-square-foot stamping plant, including installation of a four-side JIER press line (the very first in the United States)
- Upgrades to a 522,790-square-foot paint shop
- Construction of a new 347,500-square-foot material sequencing center (MSC.)
Bring on the Transit
The 522,790-square-foot paint shop upgrade, which supports production of the Transit, included four new additions and upgrades to three areas of the shop that support its new paint process system. Extensive steel removal, building and utility connections, truss reinforcing, multiple levels of retrofitting and intense material staging were required for that job. During the work, operations at the paint shop remained uninterrupted.
Most recently, Walbridge constructed the new 347,500-square-foot MSC Building while facing very challenging logistics and an extremely tight build schedule. The building was a pre-engineered structure with a sloped standing seam metal roof. Due to other construction activity and daily operations at KCAP, the team had to keep several continuous access ways open during the construction. The building was constructed in three sequences and before each sequence could be started, the team had to demolish existing structures, including a trash handling building. They also had to raise the MSC building pad 10 feet to meet the elevation of the tie-in to the existing plant floor. As part of the mass fill effort, the team transported 100,000 cubic yards of soil from another location on the KCAP property to raise the building pad.
Multi-tasking
The team also constructed a new fire pump house with a 500,000 gallon water tank, brought a five-bay addition to the stamping plant, built a 6.5 acre vehicle storage parking lot and constructed a new trash handling facility as part of the scope. Along with other miscellaneous projects that were awarded, Walbridge was responsible for working in nine totally different areas at the KCAP Site during the MSC project.
The new MSC was a design-build project with original completion slated for October 2013. Due to the challenges of moving existing facilities out of the way and owner changes, the start of construction was approximately two months late. The client was able to start moving equipment into the building on time, thanks to collaborative sequencing. The entire building was turned over in January 2014.