Batson-Cook Nears Completion of 18-Story, $80M Galleria 600 Tower

A prestigious new business address has taken shape on the horizon of the Cumberland area north of Atlanta, where Batson-Cook is nearing the completion of the glittering new Galleria 600 building near the intersection of Interstates 75 and 285. &#8220;We have done really well on this project,&#8221; said Larry Turner, project superintendent of Batson-Cook Company. &#8220;You always face a variety of challenges on a job such as this, but for the most part, everything here has seemed to click.&#8221; In fact, the work has gone so well that the construction team now expects to finish the $80-million project well ahead of the original projection of April 2002. The 18-story, 432,000-sq.-ft. (40,134 sq m) office tower is the fourth office building that Batson-Cook has erected in the Galleria office complex. The company also built the Galleria&#8217;s original retail space. Batson-Cook&#8217;s long involvement with the complex and track record of excellence made the process of selecting a general contractor easy for the project&#8217;s developer, Childress Klein Properties. Founded in 1915, Batson-Cook specializes in providing general contracting, construction management and design-build services to a wide range of clients. The firm has brought its dedication to quality construction to nearly every major category of building, including office, mission critical, retail, institutional, health care, hospitality, education and resort facilities. Batson-Cook currently has offices in Atlanta and West Point, GA, and in Tampa and Jacksonville, FL. After assigning Turner as project superintendent, and Tom Sarris as project manager for the Galleria 600 project, Batson-Cook recruited a small army of trade contractors. Plateau Excavation of Austell, GA, arrived first to begin preparing the site. &#8220;We had to take out 30 to 40 trees and 12 to 15 dumpsters full of shrubbery,&#8221; said Plateau Excavation Superintendent Ralph Kilby. &#8220;We also had to remove quite a bit of asphalt and concrete before we began moving earth from the job site.&#8221; The next phase of the site preparation process involved moving more than 42,000 cu. yds. (32,112 cu m) of earth. To accomplish this monumental task, Plateau Excavation utilized a Caterpillar 963 track loader, a Caterpillar 345 excavator and a Caterpillar D4 bulldozer. &#8220;Caterpillar equipment holds its value and their service is excellent,&#8221; Kilby said. &#8220;Plus, the Plateau Excavation office is directly across the street from Yancey Brothers, so it&#8217;s extremely easy to get parts.&#8221; The quality and reliability of Plateau Excavation&#8217;s Caterpillar equipment proved especially valuable at Galleria 600, where tight working conditions and traffic-related difficulties in delivering machinery limited the amount of equipment the company could utilize. Heavy traffic in the area also made removing excess soil from the site a bit more challenging than usual. &#8220;We tried to get as many dump trucks in, loaded, and out before morning rush hour,&#8221; Kilby said. &#8220;One day, we had 50 trucks lined up at one time.&#8221; The company also had a hydraulic sweeper on hand to keep the roads clear as the work progressed. In addition, a Plateau Excavation team headed by Allan McManus had the responsibility of installing more than 700 linear ft. (213 m) of storm drain lines around the perimeter of the site. As Plateau Excavation wound up the site work, equipment operators from Boyette Brothers of Conyers, GA, moved in to excavate the footings for the new building. To complete this portion of the project, workers from Boyette Brothers utilized equipment such as a John Deere 790E excavator and a John Deere 490E excavator equipped with a hydrohammer. &#8220;We ran into a lot of rock as we dug the footings for the building,&#8221; Turner said. &#8220;Fortunately, the equipment operators from Boyette Brothers managed to take care of everything with the John Deere 490E and its hammer, so we were able to avoid any blasting.&#8221; As soon as the footings were in place, crews from Batson-Cook went to work framing the structure. To assist in placing the structural steel and other building materials, the company leased two tower cranes from Morrow Crane Co. of Kennesaw, GA. Morrow Crane also utilized a rough-terrain Grove crane to assemble the tower cranes. Batson-Cook leased equipment such as a Gradall 524D material lifter to assist in moving building materials around the job site. Many other subcontractors assisted Batson-Cook in completing work on the building. For example, the company called in Precision Concrete Construction Inc. of Alpharetta, GA, to place and finish concrete slabs. Fayette Re-Bar Inc. of Marietta, provided assistance with steel reinforcement for the project, and McKinney & Associates Inc. of Atlanta took care of the plumbing and HVAC work. Rutledge & Sons Inc. of Kennesaw, GA, added the outer skin to the building, while Sunbelt Glass & Aluminum of Marietta, put in the windows. In addition, Thyssen Dover Elevator Corp. of Marietta, installed the elevators. Crystal Marble Co. Inc. of Cumming, GA, put in the lobby floor. Doyle Dickerson of Stone Mountain, GA, placed tile in all of the building&#8217;s rest rooms, and McGee Decorating of Doraville, GA, did the painting and wall coverings. Urban Design Group provided the architectural and interior design services. As work on the building progressed, Batson-Cook also had to modify a parking deck between the new tower and an adjacent building. Specifically, the company added a fourth level to an existing three-level deck and built another 170,000-sq.-ft. (15,794 sq m) deck that connected to the end of the existing structure. &#8220;We had to bring the footings for the new fourth level of the old deck up through the existing three-level deck,&#8221; Turner said. &#8220;To build the 30-ft. columns the new level would require, we had to dig footings beneath the existing deck and cut holes through each level to extend the columns upward.&#8221; To dig the footings required for the fourth level of the new parking deck, the company rented a small Hitachi excavator and a Bobcat 753. The small size and maneuverability of the Hitachi excavator and Bobcat skid steer made them ideal choices for the tight working conditions under the existing parking deck. To make the project even more challenging, the existing parking deck remained occupied throughout the construction process. In fact, the property owners would not allow Batson-Cook to block off more than 120 parking spaces at any one time. Despite these challenges, the company succeeded in completing almost every phase of the project ahead of schedule. &#8220;If everything continues to go smoothly, we should have no problem completing construction by the end of the year,&#8221; said Turner when he was interviewed in November 2001. &#8220;The Cobb County Fire Marshal has already begun his final series of inspections, and we expect to have all of our permits within a matter of weeks.&#8221; For more information, call 770/859-1200.This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.