Tampa International Airport New Cooling Tower & Main Terminal
The new Cooling Tower at the Tampa International Airport will serve the airport’s water and air conditioning systems. The structure is housed in a 10,000 sq ft building servicing the Main Terminal, Baggage Handling, Network Operations Center, SkyConnect station, new Vertical Circulation Buildings, and the Authority’s new Maintenance and Police Headquarters according to TLC Engineers Website: Tampa International Airport Curbside Expansion and Central Utility Plant | TLC Engineering Solutions (tlc-engineers.com)
The Express Curbside expansion features 16 new lanes, eight each for the Blue and Red sides. The scope includes a new FAA parking lot, baggage claim level, arrival, and departure drive ceiling replacement.
The new “highly efficient chiller plant replaces the existing CEP, thus saving 30% overall energy costs (equal to 3000 metric tons of CO2 per year or removing 620 cars from roads) and 50 million gallons of potable water annually according to TLC.
ULMA provided forming, shoring, and climbing solutions for constructing the cooling tower and the main terminal. MEGALITE formwork panels were supplied for the walls in the main terminal along with our climbing systems KSP and BMK, also provided for the inside and external platforms.
MEGAFRAME shoring system was used for the high-shoring heights, and ALUPROP shoring posts were provided for the top slab. Our Simple Climbing Bracket was installed in the outside walls allowing the workers to assemble inside and outside walls. These walls have almost 40’ total under the top slab that was done in 4 pourings.
The MEGAFRAME shoring system was calculated in two steps: one for the intermediate beams on level 52’ and another above these beams. A different shoring section was made with aluminum joists at the bottom of the shoring, where ALUPROP spindles were used (due to shorter height) for the top slab shoring.
MK20 FORM CIRCULAR panels were used for the wall above the top slab in the cooling tower. 30 panels were shipped pre-assembled to the job site- 15 panels for the inner side of the tank and 15 for the external. Only one tank was put together and then was used twice to build two more tanks. The total sq ft. of one tank for this job was approximately 870 sq ft with a wall thickness of 6” and an internal diameter of 18’-2”. Tampa International Airport Cooling Tower was the first job site in Florida that used ULMA’s MK20 FORM CIRCULAR system, and so far, it has been a success!
Watch the project video here.
