Raker-Beam Construction Requires Rugged Steel Forms

System devised by California arena builder permits both raker and concourse beams to be poured as a single unit

BY JEFF STEELE AND MARK LARSEN

n March 1995, as superintendents for Blake Co n s t ru c t i o n Co., we had to tackle one of the biggest challenges wed ever faced: creating 33 reinforced-concrete raker beams for a 13,000-seat, single-tier arena thats part of the San Diego State University Student Activity Center. The engineering drawings for the

105-foot-long, 2-foot-wide, 9-footdeep raker beams were the most complex wed ever seen. Because the beams needed to be finished by March 1996, it was our job to devise a forming system that could accomplish the task quickly and efficiently. We came up with a plan that permitted the raker and concourse beams to be poured as a single unit.

Conventional Forming Techniques Rejected

Our approach called for assembling a 20,000-pound rebar cage on the ground, lifting the cage onto columns, and then enclosing it within a single 55,000-pound selfspanning steel form. Because of the systems complexity, we constructed a 4-foot scale model to help pro-

Self-spanning steel formwork makes the grade at San Diego State University: Arena construction required two custom forms to create 33 reinforced-concrete raker beams.

ject engineers, carpenters, ironworkers, and managers understand how it would work. Site and equipment limitations made this the most practical system for the project. We considered other forming techniques, but had to reject them for several reasons. First, we could not assemble a complete rebar cage in the selfspanning steel form because our crane wouldnt have been able to handle the combined 75,000 pounds of rebar cage and formw o rk. Lifting each 55,000-pound form required approximately 90% of the capacity of the cra n e. The raker beam reinforcement was ext remely dense to meet Zone 4 seismic re q u i re m e n t s, and iro nworkers required full access to all sides of the cage. Second, assembling re i n f o rc ement within a steel form after it had been lifted in place would not have been economical. More form units would have been required to maintain a reasonable construction cycle, and attempting to install reinforcement within a sloped form, sometimes as high as 50 feet above grade, would have required even more iro n w o rk e r s and excessive amounts of crane time. Third, using job-built wood forms would have required extensive shoring, but the soil could support only limited shoring weight. The project is located on the site of the former Aztec Bowl football stadium, originally constructed in the 1930s on as much as 40 feet

Figure 1. The photo at left shows a completed raker beam (left) and a 20,000-pound raker beam reinforcing cage (right). Each cage was assembled on the ground and then lifted into place. of fill. We had to sink more than 300 50-foot-deep caissons to support arena columns and slab work. We considered it unsafe to pour heavy beams supported on shoring that rested on filled and often sloping ground. It could have resulted in beam shifting and sagging.

Formwork Assembly
Because there were raker beams of two different slopes, the unusual construction technique required two different raker-beam forms, engineered and manufactured by Symons Corp., Des Plaines, Ill. The forms were 105 feet long and 2 feet wide, one with a slope of 25.2 degrees and the other with a slope of 24.8 degrees. Both could accommodate field modifications. The raker and concourse beam forms were constructed pri m a ri l y of Symons standard steel form-

Figure 2. A 105-foot-long, 2foot-wide custom raker form is flown into place over the reinforcing cage. Lifting each 55,000-pound form required approximately 90% of the cranes capacity.

work manufactured with integral stiffeners. These standard pieces were combined with the forming systems major custom pieces, located at the raker nose, the pieshaped intersection of the raker and concourse beams, and the column support points (columns supported the rebar cage at its center and each end). The integral soffit of the rakerbeam form consisted of a series of a hinged doors that could be opened for setting and stripping. Each door was small enough and light enough to be opened and closed by hand. Working platforms were mounted on opposite sides of the form, one platform at the top and the other at the bottom. The riser components within the raker-beam form were drilled and installed on-site. They were set along a slightly ascending parabolic curve rather than on a sloping straight line. This ensures that the sightline distance for any spectator above the head of a spectator in the row below is identical throughout the arena. The concourse support beam consisted of three separate pieces, including a soffit with working plat-

forms and individual sidewalls. The soffit was jacked, stripped, and moved to the ground by crane using a C-hook picking unit that cradled the form.

Consistent Construction Sequence

The raker-beam re i n f o rc i n g cages were assembled (usually two at a time) in jigs adjacent to a plywood wall. This wall was marked precisely with the riser locations and the rebar ties 65-degree angle relative to the longitudinal steel. Once the cages were lifted into place, the ties were vertical. Ironworkers used a T-square device to project the riser locations on the wall out to the jig. The construction sequence required that the rakers rebar cage be set first (Figure 1). It was picked using a spreader bar with attachments every 10 to 15 feet. To minimize sagging, light temporary shoring was placed under spans as needed. The concourse support beam forms were moved into place next, allowing for subsequent installation of the beams reinforcement. The 55,000-pound ra k e r- b e a m form was then set over the entire

raker cage (Figure 2) and bolted to the columns. The long raker-beam forms were flown using eight attachment pointsfour matching locations on each sideapproximately 21 feet apart. To maintain the slope during the lift, we used exact-length chokers manufactured for the job. Once the raker-beam form had been set over the rebar cage and bolted in place, the crane was outfitted with slings to lift the slight sag in the rebar cage so that the form soffit doors could be fully closed. The raker form was rigid enough to ensure negligible deflection. Bolsters within the raker form maintained consistent cage-to-form wall spacing. The cage was assembled to much tighter dimensional tolerances than typical for concrete beam work so that spacing and cover specifications could be met.

Precise Concrete Slump Required

Pouring each integral raker-concourse beam required 80 cubic yards of 5000-psi concrete. A superplasticizer was added to the concrete at the jobsite to produce the desired slump of 5 inches. (Although specifications required only a 4000-psi material, we chose this higher-strength concrete to achieve the two-day, 3000-psi strength required for stripping.) Placement began at the bottom of each raker beam and took four to five hours using either a 3-cubic-yard bucket or a 28-meter boom pump. As concrete placement proceeded, we had to be sure slump was high enough to allow concrete to completely fill the rebar cage, but not so liquid as to ove rf l ow the riser forms. Ready mix truck deliveries were carefully timed to allow the preceding lift to stiffen enough to p re vent riser runover.

Connector Beam Form

Figure 3. One of the three self-spanning steel forms used to construct the connector beam and lock adjacent raker beams together. Lowered into place anywhere from 15 to 50 feet above grade, these connector-beam forms could be positioned and stripped as a single piece. The three self-spanning steel forms used to construct the connector beams between adjacent raker beams (Figure 3) also featured an unusual design, with

hinged doors at the soffits, allowing the form to be lowered into place and stripped as a single piece. We chose this type of self-spanning steel form for both its efficiency and safety and expect to use it again in the future. Since the arenas connector beams were only 3 feet wide and located anywhere from 15 to 50 feet above g ra d e, ironworker safety was imperative. To help meet this need, each form was 6 feet wide. The extra 3 feet contained a working platform within the form to improve ironworker safety and increase material-storage capacity. A wood bulkhead was constructed and braced inside the steel form to establish the beam dimensions.

Successful Outcome
We were happy to see the beams successfully completed on schedule last March. At the height of construction, crews finished as many as four raker-concourse beams per week. And thanks to our unique forming system, Blake Construction Co. is still scheduled to complete the arena by March 1997.
Credits Owner: San Diego State University Contractor: Blake Construction Co. Inc., San Diego Reinforcing steel contractor: Pacific Reinforcing Steel, Santee, Calif. Ready mixed concrete supplier: CalMat Concrete & Aggregate, San Diego Architect: Carrier Johnson Wu, San Diego Structural engineer: Martin/Martin, Wheat Ridge, Colo.

Jeff Steele is assistant superintendent and Mark Larsen is concrete superintendent for Blake Construction Co. Inc., San Diego. Larsen has 25 years of public-works construction experience, and both Steele and Larsen have worked on many large publicworks projects in the San Diego area. PUBLICATION #C960738
Copyright 1996, The Aberdeen Group All rights reserved