Archive for April, 2019

Building Rooms With a View

Monday, April 22nd, 2019

Downtown Minneapolis continues to grow in size as more high-rise buildings have joined its skyline in the last year. Former parking lots have converted into 20+ story apartment buildings in seemingly expedited fashion.

Egan Company’s InterClad team has played a role in adding to the exterior and interior beauty of multiple new construction high-rises. Last year, the team finished its scope of work on three luxurious apartment and condominium buildings throughout different downtown neighborhoods – and, even more high-rise work is kicking off for 2019.

“High-rise housing is a major draw for us right now,” said Todd Fechner, InterClad Operations Manager. “With our team’s experience, we’ve been able to build some great relationships with a few of our customers who are taking on these projects. In turn, we’re getting to partner with them again and again.”

Though high-rise housing and hospitality isn’t new for Egan, having simultaneous scopes of such massive sizes is – and, has become the new normal. With this, honing in on specialized glass handling equipment like SmartLifts has helped the team execute multiple big projects efficiently and safely.

Over the past year, Egan has invested in six SmartLift glass handling machines that have played a role in reducing soft tissues injuries on the job, as well as help speed up overall installation time.

“Throughout last years’ projects, we’ve learned how valuable these [SmartLifts] are,” said Fechner. “We strive to continue pushing the envelope when it comes to using innovation within our industry and utilizing SmartLifts have allowed us to remain cutting-edge. We’re excited about what the future looks like using them on upcoming projects.”

365 Nicollet

A 30-story, multi-family and retail development located on historic Nicollet Mall. This contemporary, urban living space includes 10,000 square feet of street level retail space and 370 high-end apartment units.  

SCOPE:

  • 16,000 square feet of glazed aluminum curtainwall system
  • 120,000 square feet of pre-glazed windows and terrace doors
  • Custom metal panel system: reveal seam wall panels, flush seam soffet panels, and composite wall panels
  • All curtainwall and metal panels were prefabricated in Egan’s shop

The Legacy

This lavish condominium complex overlooks the Mississippi River in the Downtown East neighborhood of Minneapolis. It is complete with a 17-story tower, eight-story midsection, and 14-story riverfront tower that boasts 374 total units.  

SCOPE:

  • 116,000 square feet of pre-glazed windows
  • 400 terrace doors
  • Custom profile flashing at each opening
  • All curtainwall was prefabricated in Egan’s shop

Rafter (Opening Summer 2019)

Adding more depth to the Northeast neighborhood of Minneapolis, this 26-story apartment building is complete with 283 units and 6,000 square feet of street level retail space.  

SCOPE:

  • 47,000 square feet of pre-glazed windows and terrace doors
  • 7,400 square feet of glazed aluminum curtainwall and storefront
  • 20,000 square feet of insulated metal panels
  • 28,000 square feet of metal siding panels
  • Glass handrails and miscellaneous interior glazing
  • All curtainwall and storefront frames were prefabricated in Egan’s shop.

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We Are Egan – John Gorg

Thursday, April 18th, 2019

“I truly enjoy the people that I work with each day – Egan has some very talented people.”

Meet John Gorg, a Senior Project Manager with Egan for 31 years.

When John is away from the office, his favorite way to relax is to spend time with his granddaughter. He claims that “being a grandpa is the greatest gift!” (awwwwwe). He also likes to spend time fishing and hunting.

Fun Fact: John and his wife, Wendy, are planning to bike 150 miles through the Bike MS: MS 150 Ride this upcoming summer.  

Our company is shaped by who we are, not just what we do. Together, we are Egan.

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Putting Trash to Good Use

Tuesday, April 16th, 2019
Complete control system for a trash burner at HERC

During the annual fall shutdown, Egan Company was involved in upgrading the four burners that continually burn trash to produce energy. After 20 years without burner upgrades, Egan controls engineers, electricians, millwrights, and pipefitters were tasked with designing, programming, and installing a newer and more efficient process for the four burners.

“The most challenging aspect of this integrated project was the very tight timeline,” said Randy Kalthoff, Egan Company Project Manager. “We had four weeks to upgrade and connect all four burners so that they were fully operational and continuing to burn and produce energy.”

Fabrication of key components ensured the project was completed on time. Piping components were fabricated in Egan’s Mechanical Shop.

The four control panels, designed, fabricated, and programmed in Egan’s UL 508A Panel Shop, were installed by Egan electricians and can be remotely controlled from GRE engineers in the control room of the facility.

Next up at HERC, Egan electrical and mechanical teams will be partnering with HERC, GRE, and a number of other contractors during the upcoming spring shutdown to replace the large conveyors and the ash handling units.

Egan helped us take a system that was over engineered and more complex than we needed and create an intuitive system for everyone. It’s always great working with Egan and the multiple trades that we utilize every project.

– Eric Freitag, Maintenance Leader at HERC

Core Project Team: Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), Great River Energy (GRE)

Services Provided: electrical and mechanical demolition and installation, control panel fabrication, field device wiring, design, engineering, and programming of electrical controls, millwright services, pipe fabrication

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Backing Local Lobbying Groups for Work Zone Safety

Thursday, April 11th, 2019

Two local lobbying groups, Citizens for Safe Work Zones (CSWZ) and AGC of Minnesota, have introduced bills that improve safety for Minnesota road workers. Egan Company has partnered with these groups and support their effort to make a positive impact on work zone safety at the legislative level.

Egan’s involvement has included guidance and recommendations to CSWZ and AGC of Minnesota, as well as providing testimonials before legislative committee hearings. We also have supported both of the parties’ objectives around eliminating distracted driving as a result of handheld mobile phones.

CSWZ Objectives for the 2019 legislative session:

  • Increased speed enforcement activities in work zones (inclusion of automated speed enforcement in work zones with speeds 45+mph)
  • Public education campaign on work zone safety
  • Establish collaborative expectations with MNDOT to improve baseline work zone safety requirements to protect contractors working on the road
  • Specific traffic control and worker protection requirements for all MnDOT jobs
  • Appropriate and additional funding from MnDOT
  • MnDOT/contractor contractual review process to ensure adequate worker protection per project

AGC of Minnesota Objectives for the 2019 legislative session: 

  • Proposing/supporting bill to enact state law against using hand held mobile devices in work zones
  • Supporting additional bill to enact state law against using hand held mobile phones in a vehicle

While there is no definite timeline for these bills, more information will be available at the end of the 2019 legislative session. As a company, we will continue to support state and industry legislative initiatives that improve the safety of Minnesota road workers.

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Refined Initiatives Stimulate Safety Rate Reduction

Friday, April 5th, 2019

To be successful in the construction industry is no different than being successful in any feat, it requires consistency. Success demands day in and day out preparation, proper tools and effective training, equipment, and conditions. When it comes to safety, this recipe for success is the same.

From our company leaders to our field leaders and all of our employees in between, we believe the key to being safe is being proactive and consistently engaging our people with safety in everything we do. At Egan Company, safety is everyone’s job. It’s everyone’s job to make sure our safety policies and procedures are being consistently executed. It’s everyone’s job to help us achieve our goal of ZERO injuries and to come home to our family and friends at the end of the work day.

Through much hard work and a refined focus, Egan achieved its Total Recordable Incident Rate goal of < 2.0 for 2018. Our incident rate for the year was 1.87 (down from 2.42 in 2017) which is substantially below the average rate for specialty trade contractors in Minnesota (4.70). This was accomplished with over 1.8 million hours worked.

“Moving the safety needle in 2018 was a great achievement for us as a company,” said Reid Romer, Egan Company Safety Director. “Our safety incident rate is a direct reflection of the time and energy we’ve invested collectively to minimize risk and protect our people. This progress comes from specific safety initiatives we committed to improving over the past few years and we are now seeing rewarding results.”

An example of one of the changes made in 2017 was within the new employee on-boarding process. This process was specifically addressed after recognizing a pattern that new employees were consistently getting injured within their first six months on the job. Egan acknowledged this, invested in changing it, and elevated it on its priority list. As a result, new employee injuries have significantly decreased.

Though we are proud of this progress in 2018, Egan has no plans of slowing down its drive to be the best-in-class when it comes to safety. Utilizing employee and peer group feedback and experiences from last year, the bar is set even higher for 2019.

“Our goal is to continue to engage with our employees and do everything we can to keep this injury reduction track trending in 2019,” said Romer. “We’ll continue to fill the information and training pipelines, as well as remain diligent with planning in both the pre-mobilization and throughout our jobs. This, along with a team approach, will continue to give us an opportunity to lead the way for safety on our projects this year and in the future.”

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We Are Egan – Dave Horazuk

Thursday, April 4th, 2019

“I really enjoy working at Egan – I think my favorite aspects are having a variety of work and good customer relationships. Both of those things are important to me.”  

Meet Dave Horazuk, an Electrical Field Leader with Egan for over 15 years.

In true Minnesota fashion, Dave’s favorite way to spend the weekend is to get outdoors. He can be found fishing, camping, snowmobiling, and ATV riding in his free time.

Our company is shaped by who we are, not just what we do. Together, we are Egan.

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