Denver News Agency Washington Street Project

Category Project of the Year Subcontractor ($2 - $6 Million)   Project Denver News Agency Washington Street Project   Owner Denver News Agency   General Contractor Saunders Construction   Architects     Engineer     Civil Engineer     Submitted By Ludvik Electric Co.

ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING – KEEP THOSE PRESSES ROLLING

Try to visualize what it takes to produce your newspaper every morning!  That process just happens to be the daily printing of newspapers by the Denver News Agency, one of the top 10 consumers of electricity in the State of Colorado.

There is a certain charge you get when you walk into any newsroom.  Just imagine the unique energy required to combine Colorado’s two largest and competing daily newspapers, The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, by moving each from their own building into one mutual facility.  This took place while both newspapers were functioning; requiring operational equipment to remain in place, combined with all employees and everything else that was required to print their respective papers.

Ludvik Electric Co., chosen by Saunders Construction, along with approximately 20 other construction and manufacturing trades made up the team to install the new printing presses.  They met the challenge by adding new equipment, revamping the entire facility printing, handling and packaging systems, adding an attached state-of-the-art storage facility, a new rail spur, a new security system, and updating the parking lot with new lighting without missing a deadline or delivery.  Ludvik set in motion a detailed management, layout and quality control plan to completely coordinate their workforce. This was essential in order to communicate with the five participating foreign countries possessing different engineering and manufacturing standards and languages.

The primary focus of the work was the replacement of nine older presses with the installation of five new presses without interrupting the printing of the newspapers. This installation was a major scheduling challenge since the presses were manufactured in Germany, were then dismantled, crated and shipped to Houston, Texas, and then transported to Colorado via specialized trucks with some loads weighing 100,000 lbs. Along with the manufacturer’s agents from Germany, there were other representatives with equipment being supplied from Sweden, France and Finland.  Ludvik personnel were required to overcome the unique challenges of the differing installation design and instruction standards while working side-by-side with employees from these different countries.  They were expected to translate the terminology and technical names of tools, devices and materials, to be proficient in the conversion of dimensions from Metric to English units, and to interpret the foreign terminology while remaining in compliance with all US codes and safety standards.   This was accomplished with all newspaper employees on-site performing their jobs and various laser guided robots moving large rolls of paper, while construction was going on all around them.  Needless to say, the interface with the robots created the need for additional safety awareness training than the already stringent daily safety standards adhered to at Ludvik.

Each of the new presses was over 100’ long and over four stories tall.  Consequently, this would result in the existing ceiling having to be raised to allow for the tallest section of the new presses.  Old style high-bay light fixtures in the press room, 60’ in the air, were replaced with new energy efficient, higher light output fixtures.  This was accomplished by Ludvik employees who utilized the over head gantry cranes as work platforms, complete with fall protection and installation safety procedures in place.

The new presses take multiple rolls of paper on the lowest level and produce newspapers that are printed and folded, then placed into a gripper on a conveyor line at the top of the press at a rate of 200 papers per minute.  The conveyor carries the papers to another room where inserts that are printed offsite are inserted into the paper, palletized and moved to an area for shipping.

As the project evolved, many changes were required in order to incorporate the latest technologies.  There was constant design reform even as equipment suppliers, technicians and construction trades were synchronizing their work.  Through coordination of planned power outages, Ludvik pulled wire from existing switchgear to all new and existing equipment with no interruptions in production.  Approximately 450,000’ of wire/cable, conduit and cable tray was installed with zero recordable safety incidents by Ludvik employees.

The new ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval System) addition has two automated cranes that remove pallets from a conveyor, place them on racks, record their location and then retrieve them later when the inserts are needed.  Ludvik installed the Cat 5e Ethernet Control Wiring System for the ASRS Computer System.

Ludvik maintained a safe work environment through their weekly safety training meetings, even though there were differing safety standards due to the international environment on this project.  Most of the electrical work was performed either over or under an operating system.

Ludvik Electric Co. relied on their multifaceted experience to meet these unique challenges.  With a forward-looking construction plan, Ludvik responded to the ambitious 24 month schedule, shortened to 21 months, through their intense foresight.   As The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News upgrade to the latest technology for printing their papers for decades to come, Ludvik Electric Co. is proud to be a part of the team chosen to keep the presses rolling.