- Helm Group

PEOPLE BUILDING VALUE - Helm Group Newsletter | Fall 2014
Mechanical Opens New Sheet Metal Fabrication Shop
In June, Mechanical moved into its new sheet metal
fabrication shop on Falcon Road in Rockford, IL. The
38,000 square-foot facility includes office space and new
fabrication equipment. Prior to the move, Mechanical
had a smaller shop in Rockford where they only fabricated
fittings from sheets. The new shop allows high-production
fabrication from coil rolls
and allows the company
to have more control
over their duct cost.
Mechanical decided to
upgrade their fabrication
capabilities
because
they were buying duct
from outside vendors.
Pricing for the outside
fabrication was volatile
depending
on
the
vendors workload and
there was the potential
for late deliveries if
the vendor could not
meet the required lead
times. Mechanical buys
and installs between
2 million and 3 million
pounds of duct annually
so they made a decision
to take more control
over this aspect of the work. The company found an old
industrial tool shop building on the grounds of the Rockford
Airport and invested money to upgrade the office space
and clean up the shop. They installed 4 new recessed
loading docks, 3 at-grade overhead doors, and 3 overhead
cranes. To keep up with deliveries, they also bought a fleet
of trailers and box trucks.
Bill Hoffman, Todd Whitlock, and Scott Hoffman handled
the layout of the equipment to make the operation as
productive as possible. The first goal was to optimize
the flow of fabrication from the coil unloading to the coil
line and plasma tables. An overhead door was installed
to allow access for the truck to pull into the building. A
7.5 ton overhead crane unloads the coil stock and places
it in the storage area. The same crane is also used to load
the coil onto the coil line. As duct comes off of the coil
line, the seams are made and the corners are installed
with automated machines. Then each piece goes to the
spooling area. In the
fitting operation, the
new plasma table has a
de-coiler and each piece
is cut on the 20’ table.
The shape of each piece
comes from the CAD file
for the project where
CAD Technician, Joe
Parker, interfaces the
CAD to the CAM system.
After the shapes are cut
by Eric Lizer, a sticker is
applied to each shape
showing the job number
and piece number. The
piece is then assembled
on one of three fitting
tables in the shop. After
the fitting table, the
completed piece goes to
the spooling area where
multiple pieces are joined so that large sections of duct can
be shipped to the field. Before being loaded on a truck, the
ends are wrapped to keep out duct and debris.
In addition to the spooling operation, duct hangers are
fabricated in the shop. Both of these activities are easier to
perform in a controlled environment. In the hanger area,
threaded rod, bolts, nuts, strut, and straps are assembled
for multiple projects, then wrapped and tagged so that
they can be delivered to the exact floor and area where
they will be installed.
Article continued on page 9.
Inside This Issue
Reaching the Next Milestone................................. 2
Choose the Behavior Choose the Consequence... 3
Highway 20 Bridges............................................ 4-5
2014 Helm Group Project Photos........................6-7
Route 26 Paving.................................................... 8
Mechanical New Fab Shop Continued................... 9
Chicago Athletic Association............................10-11
Heavy Launches New Website.............................12
United Way Donation............................................12
Reaching the Next Milestone
Most of us have been on construction projects where a milestone
date is part of the schedule. The milestone isn’t necessarily the
end of the project, but a point in the project where a major part
of the project is completed. As a company, we have milestones
too. The milestones aren’t necessarily planned well in advance
like on a construction project, but they are points in time when
there was a significant change to the company. In the last 15
years, I can point to 7 milestones that made our company better
and one of those milestones happened this year.
The first milestone was the structures work we had in 2002.
That year, we were the low bidder on two bridges totaling $50
million. Those two projects, one on I-74 over the Rock River in
Moline and the other over the Rock River in Dixon, accounted for
half of the Helm Group’s previous year’s revenue. There were
significant penalties for late completion and the projects were
so tough that many of our own employees questioned whether
we knew what we were doing. After extensive planning, we
were able to accelerate our work to gain an early completion
bonus and both jobs turned out to be huge successes. Most of
all, the two jobs gave us confidence that we can build tough jobs
by planning the work and executing our plan. That confidence
would lead to many other great bridge opportunities in the
years to come.
The next milestone was the acquisition of Borg Mechanical in
2003. Although the acquisition made 2003 a very tough year,
the addition of mechanical capabilities in the Chicago area
propelled the Helm Group to a new source of revenue and
profit that we were not previously able to capture. The Chicago
market has proven to be much more consistent than most of
our other markets and the expertise we acquired helped us not
just in Chicago, but in other markets as well.
The Abraham Lincoln Bridge project on I-39 over the Illinois
River from 2007-2008 was also a milestone. At the time, this
was the largest project we had ever bid; it was also outside of
our home IDOT District and used local union labor that was not
part of our core workforce. We had some previous experience
with structures work away from home, but nothing of this
magnitude. When the bid results came in, we were the low
bidder at $33 million, but had left $7.4 million on the table.
Although it looked like it could be a big problem, the project
turned out to be a success. The project was profitable, we were
able to develop some new core employees, and best of all, the
project helped instill a culture of travel that today has taken us
to projects like Biggsville and Effingham.
In 2009, we acquired Norstar, a Rockford-based sheet metal
company. Prior to Norstar, we self-performed only the piping
side of the HVAC scope and we subcontracted our sheet metal.
The problem was that there were only a few stand-alone sheet
metal contractors to team up with and often times, the double
mark-up on their scope would make us uncompetitive. Since the
acquisition, we have seen very few projects where piping and
2
sheet metal are bought separately
and there are only one or two
stand-alone sheet metal contractors
remaining. The combination of both
scopes has helped us become one of
the leading commercial mechanicals
in the region.
Also in 2009, our Mechanical Service
group, which had been steadily
growing since its inception in 2000,
was awarded an important facility
Brian Helm,
maintenance
agreement
with
Helm
Group CEO
full-time dedicated staff at Rock
Valley College. The work included
traditional HVAC service as well as
building automation and has since led to similar agreements at
other education and corporate campuses. The award helped
solidify the strategy that we were not a traditional service
contractor, but instead a facility solutions provider that could
complete with the national players.
The next milestone was in 2012 when we acquired Northwest
Illinois Construction in Sterling, Illinois. We had previously
owned 1/3 of this company, but ran it with separate management
and the entity struggled to make a profit most years. In 2012,
we acquired the other 2/3 and combined Northwest with our
Civil Roads division. The biggest assets purchased with the
company were the quarry and asphalt plant on Palmyra Road.
Prior to Northwest, we paved in three counties, and after, we
could easily reach six. This asphalt plant was critical in 2013
because almost all of the paving work we performed came from
this plant. Going forward, we expect the acquisition to continue
to prove itself as a major milestone by opening up this new
geographic region.
The most recent milestone came this year in the form of a sheet
metal fabrication shop. Mechanical installs around 3 million
pounds of fabricated duct per year and previously bought it
from outside suppliers. There are only 2-3 vendors capable of
handling our workload on most projects and many times, the
vendors’ pricing and lead time reflect their dominant position
in the market. By investing in a new facility and equipment, we
are able to bring the sheet metal fabrication in-house and have
more control over our costs and schedule. We are also able to
put ourselves on the same playing field as our competitors, all
of whom have strong fabrication capabilities.
Those are the seven milestones I can point to that defined our
last 15 years. In addition, there were hundreds of projects
made possible by our outstanding employees. The seven major
events propelled our growth and profitability, but these were
just the most recent seven. With your help, I fully expect to
continue the milestone list well into the future.
Choose the Behavior, Choose the Consequences
Every day we are faced with thousands of decision making
opportunities. Some studies suggest that an average person can
be faced with up to 35,000 decision making opportunities in
one day. That’s a lot of chances to make decisions with negative
outcomes.
There is the deliberate, logical, attentive part of our mind that
is capable of analyzing a problem and coming up with a rational
answer. This is the part that we are aware of, and it is expert at
solving problems. It works slower and requires a lot of energy.
The simple act of walking is enough to occupy a great deal of
attentive mind. Try calling someone on the cell phone while
they are walking and ask them to solve a problem that requires
a lot of thought. The majority of the time they will have to stop
walking so their mind can concentrate on what is being said.
The mind needs to slow down so it can process the information
and come up with a solution
Then there is the other part of our mind that is intuitive, fast
and automatic. This fast way of thinking is incredibly powerful
and is responsible for most of the things that we say, do, think,
and believe. Most of the time this “auto pilot” part of our mind
makes the thousands of decisions needed each day without
even realizing it. This is where the mistakes start to happen.
While the second part of our mind is busy working, it will
continue to do so until something negative happens. When this
happens, the first part of the mind will take over to determine
if it is a serious enough consequence to change our behavior.
How about using a saw to cut a piece of wood, pipe, or steel
by Shawn Meier
without wearing eye protection? The act of sawing has become
automatic as there have not been serious negative outcomes,
so we don’t wear safety glasses all the time. Lose an eye while
sawing and the logical slower part of our mind tells us to wear
safety glasses as we only have one left. The mistake happened
in our fast “get it done” automatic part of the mind, until
something serious enough happened to cause our logical part
of the mind to change our behavior. We now wear safety glasses
all the time because we don’t want to lose the other eye.
It is estimated that it takes 21 days of bad behavior to form
a bad habit. If our fast mind goes 21 days without a negative
consequence from the bad behavior, then it will become a bad
habit. The severity of any consequence determines if it is worth
changing the behavior and making it a good habit. Choose the
behavior, choose the consequence. Good Behavior + Good
Consequence = Good Habit.
A small mistake in our fast mind is a warning sign that we
need to Stop, Look, and Analyze the mistake to determine if
we need to change our way of doing something. Mistakes are
a tremendous opportunity for improving our safety efforts,
production, and quality. By identifying that a mistake was made
and analyzing it to change a bad habit to a good habit, we can
dramatically reduce any negative outcomes
Stop, Look, and Analyze the behavior or condition to reduce the
negative consequence. Change a bad habit into a good habit,
pick one…..lets change together.
2014 OSHA Safety Stand-Down
Fall 2014
3
Highway 20 Bridges
The spring of 2014 brought a new year for Civil Structures in the
Rockford area with once again another challenging project. US
20 in Rockford between IL 251 and IL 2, is the site of this new
project where 4 bridges carry traffic across the main channel
and a tributary of the Rock River. This $22 Million dollar
contract includes the full replacement of these four bridges and
new concrete pavement between them. Each bridge will be a
two span structure with 81”deep steel plate girders approx 420
ft long. Gerry Fye is the Carpenter Foreman leading the charge
on behalf of the tradesmen.
The project began on March 24th with the construction of
concrete crossovers to facilitate shifting all the traffic onto the
WB lanes in order for the EB bridges to be constructed. The
crossovers proved to be a very tedious pre-stage piece of work.
This work would ultimately not allow the bridge work to begin
until May 29th. With two full bridges to remove and replace, it
by John Schneider
became extremely necessary to hit the ground running with a
solid plan given that the interim completion date is November
30 when all traffic has to be restored to its original configuration.
Once traffic was removed from the EB lanes, the demolition
process began. Unlike traditional multi girder bridges, these
existing structures only had two larger girders with transverse
floor beams spaced at 13 feet on center. This condition made the
deck slab removal a little tricky given that the excavator would
have to be positioned just right for the transverse floor beams
to carry the load back to the longitudinal girders. The position
of the excavator made it difficult to pick the slabs with a fixed
slab bucket attachment. Therefore, the purchase of a rotating
coupler (Roto-Tilt) which allowed the slab pieces to be picked
from different angles became the key to our success. When
it came time to remove the beams, the excessive weight per
foot of these existing 81” deep steel girders offered additional
challenges given that the span length from pier to pier was
between 100 and 130 feet long. A pre-engineered demolition
plan was followed with very little deviation given the instability
of the girders once the floor beams were removed.
After demolition of the first structure was complete, we
immediately went into the substructure construction by driving
steel sheet piling in the river for the cofferdam of the lone pier.
There were 72 14” diameter steel shell pile in the pier driven to
an average depth of 35 ft and then a 70’x20’ footing 3.5’ thick
poured around them.
After the pier and both abutments were constructed, we were
ready for the daunting task of erecting the new steel girders.
Given the excessive weight of these 132 ft long beams and the
very limited room to place a crane, we hired an outside crane
company to bring in a 550 ton capacity truck crane to hoist
4
the beams over the pier into position without getting into the
traffic in the existing WB lanes. We supplemented this crane
with one of our own Link Belt 110 ton track cranes and a 50
ton Grove truck crane. The complete erection of the 18 beams
(6 lines of 3 beams each) and 12 splices took 12 days. Just like
in the demolition phase, there was a threat of buckling when
a girder line was erected without intermediate cross bracing.
We avoided this by having the 50 ton Grove hold the first girder
line until the second one was installed and braced to the first
one. The erection of the first structure finished without a hitch
due to the relentless pursuit of excellence and creativity of the
iron worker foreman, Doug Diddens and his great staff of iron
workers. Worthy of special recognition are the operators, Mark
Leverton and Vance VanOosten, who remained very calm and
focused throughout all the difficult picks of the heavy beams.
The second bridge lagged behind the first by approximately 2
weeks. Maintaining this lag time proved to be the key to staying
on schedule and meeting the completion date. The second
bridge was very similar in many ways with the exception of the
2015 will bring a mirror image of this year with the exception
of an earlier start date since the crossovers are already built.
Thanks to all of those who were an integral part in the 2014
construction. Some of those names include, but are not limited
to: Jerry Fye, Bob Dixon, Brian Dixon, Jeff Johnson, Jerry Pardus,
Mark Grobe, Adam Ruchti, Ben Higley, Ben Lipnitzky, Tim Powers,
Trent Tipton, Dustin Cassidy, Becky Near, Willie Schmelzer, and
Curt Ihrig.
steel erection. This structure still had two spans but had an
additional beam on each girder line creating two more splices
per girder line. This resulted in a very unique 4 crane pick to
erect the first girder line from the abutment to the pier. Getting
all four cranes to work in concert without overstressing any
of the beams was very difficult but armed with a good steel
erection plan along with superior communication, it became
manageable.
Some other points of interest were pouring the first concrete
deck with a 300 ft back out conveyor system, as well as pouring
the second concrete deck with a 61 meter truck-mounted
concrete pump that reached 180 ft. This pump was one of the
largest truck mounted in the United States. The total amount
of structural steel set this year exceeded 3.5 million pounds and
the portland cement concrete poured was approximately 2700
cy.
Fall 2014
5
2014 Helm Group Projects
6
I90 WB over the Kishwaukee River
Elizabeth Quarry
Woodward Governor
John Deer Road Overpass
Cuyahoga County Convention Center Hotel
Railroad Ave. Bridge
A Year in Review
Freeport Fab Shop Plumbing PreFab
Adkins Energy
Effingham Highway 70 Bridge
Lake Central High School
Skokie Surgical Pavilion
Fall 2014
Jane Adams Bike Trail
7
IL Route 26 Paving
by Denny Heer
This summer, Civil Roads successfully completed the second
night paving project in its history on IL 26 through Freeport.
High traffic counts made the project a challenge to plan and
execute. To minimize disruption, the Illinois Department of
Transportation decided to use a 25 night schedule rather than
a longer schedule where work would be done during daytime
with more traffic.
The project consisted of pavement patching, miscellaneous
curb repairs, selected inlet reconstructions, adjustment of
manhole and water valve castings, milling 2 ¼” of asphalt, and
replacement of the asphalt in two lifts. The schedule restrictions
prevented us from working on the roadway between the
hours of 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM with a fine of $500 for every 15
minutes work extended into this time frame. The acquisition
of a complete set of lights from our purchase of Northwest
Construction benefitted the project due to the high percentage
of work performed at night.
Kevin Powers and crew removed the manhole and water valve
castings and, along with Scott Hayes’ crew, performed pavement
patching on a nightly basis to prepare the surface for milling. It
was determined that starting at 3:00 AM allowed the patching
to be poured by 7:00 AM. The necessary strength could be
obtained by 12:00 PM (noon) and the roadway could be cleared
for traffic by 1:00 PM without a fine. The Ready-Mix supplier
worked very effectively with the Civil crews to provide quality
5-hour concrete and timely service which allowed the project
to progress quickly.
Once the patching was completed and the utilities were
lowered, Steve Rhode and crew took over along with Javelina
Construction, the subcontractor that performed the milling.
The project was sectioned into 4 nights of milling and paving
level binder as the milled pavement was not allowed to have
traffic placed on it until it was covered with level binder. This
operation started around 8:00 PM and was completed by 8:00
AM most mornings. Many people were involved with this
process as it was also our responsibility to make and ship the
asphalt and perform the quality control on the mix. The city of
Freeport restricts the use of vibration to compact asphalt mixes
therefore Greg Peet and Heavy Construction Services were
enlisted to rent heavy static rollers which allowed us to obtain
the necessary compaction without vibration.
After the level binder was complete, Pete Rhode and crew placed
the surface mix on the mainline and Steve’s crew completed the
incidental paving on all of the side roads. It was time to bring
the utilities back to grade and Randy Quies led a crew to raise
all of the manholes and water valves. This crew also worked at
night and Scott Hayes’ crew would arrive at 4:00 AM to pour
the concrete before they went on to work at other projects. The
concrete again was poured using a 5-hour mix to get strength
prior to 1:00 PM.
The project was completed in 23 working days with only two
items on the punchlist, one of which was cleaning up the
staging area. There were a total of 68 different people on Civil’s
payroll for this project. The expertise and dedication of all 68
individuals involved ensured the successful completion of this
project. Thank you all and congratulations on a job well done!
8
Sheet Metal Fabrication Shop (continued from p.1)
There is a production goal for each operation in the shop and
the actual progress toward that goal hangs on the wall so that all
employees know how they are doing. From late summer through
the fall, the crews have hit their production goals. One of the
changes made after the first few months that helped increase
production was adding an extra fitting table and moving the
tables to an area with more working area. The fitting operation
is more labor-intensive than the other operations, so the team
needed the area to be congestion-free.
Another section of the shop is the weld area. Here, stainless
steel and black iron duct is made for special applications such
as industrial and kitchen exhaust. John McNamara and Steve
Baxter manage the weld shop.
The office area of the shop was renovated along with the shop
area. In addition to the fabrication staff, offices are also used by
Mechanical Service and Civil Structures employees that all have
projects in the area.
So far, the sheet metal shop has proven to be a huge advantage
for the company. The investment has led to more projects by
having lower costs and more control over the projects by selfperforming the work.
Fall 2014
9
Chicago Athletic Association
Mechanical is performing the plumbing for a major historic
adaptive reuse of the former Chicago Athletic Association at
12 S. Michigan in the heart of downtown Chicago. The facility
is being completely overhauled from the social/athletic club
that closed in 2007 into a 240 room high end hotel complete
with a new rooftop bar and banquet facilities throughout. It
is a nineteen story building originally completed in 1893 that is
designated as a historic landmark.
The project has had and will have many obstacles and challenges,
beginning with the new site water and sewer that required the
closing of lanes on Michigan and Madison Avenues. To add
to the logistical challenges of closing down the major roads,
the work had to occur with limited interruption to attempt to
alleviate the concerns of the neighboring building’s tenants and
occupants. We were very happy to wrap up the site work in
early April.
The interior plumbing is currently being roughed in from the
top down, while the lower floors are still being demolished
and the CAD/BIM coordination team continues to iron out the
10
by Joel Maevers
challenges below.
The major challenges with the interior work of the project
have come from the structural considerations and site logistics.
The building’s floor supporting structure is clay tile that is
held in place with tie rods. This represents quite a challenge
with coring and being inventive with the layout as it has to be
somewhat flexible to miss the tie rods. It also creates a little
more difficulty when it comes to the hanging and securing of
piping. The site logistics are difficult due to limited floor access
and skip hoist access. Foreman Bill Mullner overcame one
access challenge by using a combination of chutes and ramps
to deliver stone to the basement through an opening at street
level. Pipe was moved to the basement in a similar fashion.
The project to date has gone well due to excellent planning and
execution by the project team. In addition to Bill Mullner in the
field, Bob Brady managed the prefabrication of the guestroom
plumbing and John Lehane coordinated the BIM model. The
project is scheduled to be turned over and ready for occupancy
in March of 2015.
The History of the Chicago Athletic Association
The Chicago Athletic Association was founded in 1890 by
prominent Chicagoans including retail magnate Marshall Field,
inventor Cyrus McCormick, and A.G. Spalding.
The CAA building was built in 1893 at 12 South Michigan
Avenue. It was designed by Henry Ives Cobb in a Venetian Gothic
style, rare for Chicago. The building’s façade, which is strongly
reminiscent of the Doges Palace in Venice, was designed to give
the CAA a distinctive identity when viewed from the lakefront,
particularly by visitors to the World’s Columbia Exposition of
1893 and to be one of the most important and exclusive men’s
clubs in the country.
The architect, who was a club member, was well known for
his designs for the Chicago Historical Society (more currently
the Excalibur Club in River North), the Newberry Library, and
several buildings at the University of Chicago.
The building is widely considered one of the finest examples of
Venetian Gothic architecture in the United States, and is one
Fall 2014
of Chicago’s most adored buildings. It exudes an air of a faded
glamour, but has architectural bones that are beyond reproach.
It is often described as one of the most beautiful and highly
detailed buildings in the country.
The Chicago Athletic Association was a not-for-profit
organization that provided a setting for athletic, business,
and social activities. In 1915, when member William Wrigley
bought the Chicago Cubs,
the team adopted the club’s
logo, permanently securing its
place in Chicago history.
The club survived until 2007
when it filed for bankruptcy.
The Hyatt family recently
purchased the building and
the renovation in which we are
a part of continues until the
boutique hotel is complete.
11
P.O. Box 750
2283 US 20 BR E
Freeport, IL 61032
PRSRT STD
U.S. Postage
PAID
Rockford, IL
Permit No. 781
Heavy Launches New Website
During the past year, Heavy has been working closely with M45 Marketing Services to re-design the company website.
The new website showcases all of Heavy’s traditional capabilities: parts, service, sales, as well as new product offerings
such as Capello cornheads, tire sales and aluminum wheel polishing. Every department has its own page where customers
can find specific information and the contact information they need to quickly get in touch with the proper representative.
Customers searching for a used truck now have the ability to view current trucks for sale and make an offer online as well as
request a quote for their own custom build. Parts customers can order and even pay for truck and agricultural parts online
and have them shipped anywhere in the United States. Along with ordering agricultural equipment parts online, customers
can check out the new Capello cornheads and see them in action with the videos on the Capello page. There is also a link to
Heavy’s eBay store where customers nationwide can purchase anything from truck parts to pickup trucks. Heavy’s Service
Department is also featured with full-service tire sales and aluminum wheel polishing pages.
Heavy’s website prominently spotlights and markets our many offerings and is crucial to attracting new customers and
meeting the dynamic needs of existing customers. Be sure to check it out! http://heavy.helmgroup.com
United Way Donation
Thank you to all employees that donated two hours of pay to the United Way and it’s member
agencies in October. Employees donated $43,702 and the Helm Group matched this amount for
a total donation of $87,404.