State-of-the-Art Plant Uses 152 Pole Bases
ARAUCO, a global forestry company headquartered in Santiago, Chile, is building a particleboard plant on a 640-acre site about five miles south of Grayling, Michigan. While 75% of the site will remain forested, 152 Pole Bases will be used to illuminate the 150-acre portion of the site where the state-of-the-art plant will be built.
Once complete, the plant will be the longest, continuous, single-line particleboard press in North America at 170 feet (52 meters). In addition to standard site lighting for roadways and parking lots, Pole Bases were used in locations along the conveyor system where there was not the face of building to install lighting. Products shown: Light pole bases in Round Rusticated texture.
“The bases look good and they install easy -- lots of conduit entries, bolt patterns are right, everything's square, plumb, flush, and easy to work with,” said Ron Oswald, Site Superintendent for J. Ranck Electric. “We’re probably saving 50% labor hours on 152. We can get about 8 of your bases in a day.” Products shown: Light pole base in Round Rusticated texture.
152 Pole Bases were installed by J. Ranck Electric at the new ARAUCO Particleboard Plant in Grayling, Michigan. Originally bid with poured-in-place bases for the site lighting, estimator Peter Kropf went back to crunch the numbers on using precast bases for the project. Kropf found that Pole Base offered significant time savings for the project. Products shown: Light pole base in Round Rusticated texture.
As Arauco looks to optimize efficiency at their new plant, for example having railroad tracks onsite to facilitate log and raw material transportation, Pole Base helps optimize site lighting installation according to J. Ranck Site Superintendent Ron Oswald. “We can move in, dig the hole, plant the base, do the connections, backfill, compact, and get out of there all in a short period of time.” Products shown: Light pole base in Round Rusticated texture.
Delivery of the 152 Pole Bases was spread out over the course of 8 weeks. The deliveries ranged from 12 to 28 bases, each 7-feet (2.1-meters) tall by 24-inches (610 mm) in diameter. J. Ranck used their bucket truck and trailer to transport the bases from the staging area to their installation locations, some of which were in remote locations on the 640-acre site where getting a concrete truck would prove difficult. Products shown: Light pole bases in Round Rusticated texture.
“You go in one time, knock it out, you're out of there,” said Ron Oswald, J Ranck Electric Site Supervisor of installing Pole Base precast light pole bases. “I don't have to worry about getting a concrete truck in here. It's a big deal. In a congested site, there's not a lot of room to move big trucks around.” Products shown: Light pole bases in Round Rusticated texture.
Once complete, the plant will be the longest, continuous, single-line particleboard press in North America at 170 feet (52 meters). In addition to standard site lighting for roadways and parking lots, Pole Bases were used in locations along the conveyor system where there was not the face of building to install lighting. Products shown: Light pole bases in Round Rusticated texture.
“The bases look good and they install easy -- lots of conduit entries, bolt patterns are right, everything's square, plumb, flush, and easy to work with,” said Ron Oswald, Site Superintendent for J. Ranck Electric. “We’re probably saving 50% labor hours on 152. We can get about 8 of your bases in a day.” Products shown: Light pole base in Round Rusticated texture.
PROJECT DETAILS
Project Name: ARAUCO Plant Manufacturer: MDC Contracting Owner: ARAUCO Grayling Particleboard Plant Electrical Contractor/Installer: J. Ranck Electric Project Location: Grayling, MI Built: 2018 Case: 022 - ARAUCO Plant