www.concreteproducts.com April 2014 • 23
NEWS SCOPE
PRECAST
signed to have enough concrete close to the opening for
FEMA-rated windows and doors to anchor to—meeting FE-
MA's guidelines—while maximizing the insulation to that
opening to avoid cold spots in the precast. Insulated walls
had 1-ft. total depth with dimensions at 4-in. exterior x
3-in. insulation x 5-in. interior.
Midwest Precast provided 45 wall panels from its Mt.
Pleasant, Iowa, plant, which is about 160 miles from the proj-
ect site. Wall panels varied in thickness from 8, 10 and 12
inches. The largest precast wall panels were 21 ft. 3 in. x 10
ft. The precast hollow core roof panels were supplied by Circle
Pines, Minn.-based Molin Concrete Products. The roof com-
prises 180 8-in. thick hollow core planks with the largest
pieces measuring 4 x 10 feet. Additional 3-in. concrete
topping was placed over the FEMA-rated shelter space.
The Giovannetti Community Shelter opened in Septem-
ber 2013 under budget of the original design. The pre-safe
room budget was around $850,000. Final budget with safe
room was $1,877,000 but with $1,032,213 in federal mon-
ey, the project was completed at $844,787—a win-win for
everyone involved.
Spec Formliner, Inc. Pattern No. 1501 – Dry Stack Field-
stone was used for the textured stone effect of the precast
walls. Using the form liner along the north side of the
building made it diffcult to get a consistent color result-
ing in each panel being a slightly different shade.
Both the precast wall and roof panels were erected by Des
Moines-based Steel Erectors of Iowa. The general contrac-
tor for the project was Rochon Corp., also of Des Moines.
Jensen Builders delivered the foundation and fatwork,
the concrete supplied by Norwalk Ready Mix.
Concrete Products April 2014.indd 23 4/1/2014 11:38:58 AM