< PreviousWith embodied carbon no longer being a niche technique, it has now reached the mainstream and is becoming a com- mon feature of new projects. This ability to adapt current materials is proving to be a positive development in lowering industry emissions, however, experts believe that even more needs to be done. The construction industry is facing up to the likelihood that it needs to source alternative materials altogether. Many of these are likely to come from scientific breakthroughs or, in some cases, as accidental discoveries. Sometimes however, ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ as the saying goes. Though this is a challenge, it is certainly not an insurmountable one. As the evolution of building work has shown countless times, innovation and new technologies are a part of who we are. The industry is constantly adapting. Led by Associate Professor Wil Srubar, the Living Materials Laboratory is a team of researchers and scientists based in University of Colorado, Boulder. Their aim is simple, to ‘Build with Biology.’ Having received over $16M in research funding, the team has set about identifying, testing, and discovering alternative ‘living’ materials that can be used in the construc- tion industry. With projects such as load-bearing and self-repairing sand, it seems the team are leading neces- sary change. “By maximizing resource productivity, longevity, and recovery, sustainable materials exhibit a transformative potential to enhance the global sustainability of our built and natural environments.” The thought of bio or living materials in construction may seem concerning to those within the industry. Questions will surely arise about the strength and durability of anything proposed as alternatives to concrete. The truth is though, construction has used biomaterials for hundreds of thou- sands of years. Timber and bamboo have been relied upon to support structures with no such concerns. With these mate- rials, the biological organisms used to produce them will eventually die off meaning they will erode and decompose. Where living materials differs, however, is that unlike wood, living organisms such as fungi and bacteria can now be used in construction materials. For Srubar and his colleagues at the Living Materials Laboratory, this ‘living’ aspect is where things get truly exciting. “We already use biological materials in our buildings, like wood, but those materials are no longer alive. We’re asking: Why can’t we keep them alive and have that biology do something beneficial, too?” One benefit the team has identified is the use of a bacteria that can be kept alive in situ. By successfully keeping these organisms alive for long periods of time, the researchers have proved that the possibility of living buildings that self- heal cracks and suck toxins from the surrounding atmo- sphere is not too far away. What’s more is that the potential for these buildings to interact with their environment is boundless. Chelsea Heveran, a former post- doctoral research assistant at CU Boul- der, now at Montana State University, explains how buildings made with these materials will ultimately have a sense or awareness of the world around it. “Though this technology is at its beginning, looking forward, living building materials could be used to improve the efficiency and sustain- ability of building material production and could allow materials to sense and inter- act with their environment." These future buildings, capable of responding to an environment in real time, may be some way off but it is the efficiency and sustainability aspects that Srubar and his team have been working towards. They recently achieved success in an area that could be transformational for the industry. By experimenting with cyanobacteria belonging to the genus Synechococcus, they discovered that it has the ability to absorb carbon dioxide gas which helps it grow and create the main ingredient in both limestone and cement. What sets this discovery apart from the bacteria typically used to create self-healing concrete is that, crucially, it has a resilience that sees the bacteria survive. Self-healing materials typically have a survival rate of around 1%. With this new type, 14% of the bacterial colonies were still alive after 30 days, creating three generations in the process. | 60 SEPTEMBER 2023Alongside this breakthrough, the team of researchers also discovered that resilience meant that the material could reproduce. Quite literally, if the blocks were chopped in half, they are capable of growing into a new brick. This, Srubar says, is key to creating materials that thrive and live long-term. “We know that bacteria grow at an exponential rate,” Srubar said. “That’s different than how we, say, 3D-print a block or cast a brick. If we can grow our materials biologically, then we can manufacture at an exponential scale.” With science playing an ever-increasing role in the produc- tion of sustainable building materials, the team at Univer- sity of Colorado are making significant headway to finding groundbreaking alternatives. Their blocks have the same strength as mortar and provide an incredible array of ben- efits. While challenges still lie ahead in terms of ensuring the correct environmental factors, Srubar believes that the answers are out there. For him and his team, they just need to know where to look. “Nature has figured out how to do a lot of things in a clever and efficient way. We just need to pay more attention.” | 61 APEIRON CONSTRUCTION| 62 SEPTEMBER 2023WRITTEN BY AOIFE CHANEY F rom its 95,000 square foot plant in Davison, Michigan, Bristol Steel & Conveyor Corp has been providing structural steel solutions to the surrounding area since 1979. Davison is located within the environs of Detroit, the Automobile Capital of the World, and so it makes sense that automotive industrial work is, as Estimate & Sales Manager Matt Payne says, “our bread and butter.” Owned and operated by Ray Oliver, Bristol Steel is fully equipped to deliver large, labor-intensive projects that are anywhere up to 10,000 tons in scale. However, as Payne explains, they are more than just an automotive company. | 63 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONFlint Welding Supply 2201 Branch Road, Flint, MI 48506 Phone: (810)736-0050 | Fax: (810)736-2142 FLINTWELDINGSUPPLY.COM FLINT | OWOSSO | SAGINAW “We’re starting to do a lot more commercial and institutional work. We are currently expanding the company’s capabilities as far as fabrication goes. We have recently purchased two new beam lines for our fabrication shop and put on a 200- foot addition to our plant.” Payne joins me to talk about where the company now sits after almost 45 years in business, but also about where it all began. The company was started he says, by current Chair- man, Ray Oliver. “A journeyman and an ironworker, Ray Oliver got into the trade industry in the sixties where he started working in automotive plants. He was somebody who saw an opportunity and took it,” says Payne. The opportunity he speaks of is the exponential growth of the Automotive Indus- try in Flint, Michigan back in the seventies and eighties. This boom allowed Oliver to not only start his own company but to set it up for success long into the future. “Here in Davison, we’re about fifteen miles from Flint, and that’s where the opportunity really presented itself. There was a lot of work taking place in the area back then. In the mid to late seven- ties Ray saw the opportunity to open his own fabrication and erection company, and in 1979 that’s what he did.” Propelled forward by hard work and an ability to spot an opportunity and run with it, Oliver evolved from tradesperson to owner of a company that remains viable and profitable today. “You go where the work is and where the market takes you.” For Bristol Steel, this was evident back in the seventies during the growth of the automotive industry in the same way that it is now with the rise of the Electrical Vehicle. “These EV plants are really creating a boom for our sector,” Payne explains. He gives the example of the BlueOval City in Kentucky which is an automotive assembly complex that will be operated by Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation. “The Blue Oval project was about a 40- 42-hundred-ton project,” he says. “It’s a single-story truss and column manufacturing plant addition for the battery buildup of the building.” Bristol Steel’s involvement in the BlueOval project, which aims to reimagine how electric vehicles and batteries are designed, built, and recycled, places the company as a significant element of the electric revolution. “It’s all local contractors managing these facilities,” Payne says. “These “We are a turnkey company when it comes to fabrication and erection of structural miscellaneous steel.” | 64 SEPTEMBER 2023ANCHOR BOLTS CUSTOMER FASTENERS THREADED PRODUCTS FROM ¼” 5” DOT SUPPLIER Contact Us Today! P: 800-929-3845 F: 248-349-8992 E: sales@aaanchorbolt.com AAAnchorBolt.com AAAnchorBoltInc “Impossibilities We Do Immediately! Miracles Take a Little Longer.” Family-Owned & Operated Since 1979 | Domestic Manufacturer are $6 billion campuses that go on for six square miles. We already have relationships with these contractors and are in a position where we have been working with some of them for 25 years. So, we’re going to be employing any- where between 5 to 6000 people at these plants, on these campuses. Sometimes business is about being in the right place at the right time.” Since the beginning, Bristol Steel has evolved. This ability to diversify, develop, and pivot when required has transformed Bristol Steel into a company that, as Payne says, is “one stop shopping when it comes to steel fabrication and erection.” Over the years it has become one of the largest steel fab- ricators in the state of Michigan, employing about 50 to 60 people in office and about 70 people in fabrication facilities, depending on the workload at a given time. “We are a turnkey company when it comes to fabrication and erection of struc- tural miscellaneous steel. And like I said, we'll do projects up to 10,000 tons in size, whether it be industrial, commercial, institutional, all types of the industry work.” Payne takes me through the three different divisions that form the building blocks of Bristol Steel. | 65 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONP: 248-673-2505 E:VICTORIA@CITYSTEELDECK.COM UNMATCHED STEEL DECK & STUD EXPERTISE CitySteel works directly with erectors, general contractors & sub contractors to supply decking and stud work for commercial, residential, government, manufacturing, sports, education & healthcare applications. We provide a high quality, worry-free installation that eliminates the risk of costly errors and delays. CITYSTEELDECK.COM CITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COM CITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COM CITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COM CITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COM CITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COM CITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COMCITYSTEELDECK.COM “So, we have our Bristol Steel division, which is our fabri- cation and erection facility where we fabricate structural miscellaneous steel.” This division, known as Bristol Steel & Conveyor Corporation, consists of Fabricators and Erec- tors of small to mega sized structural steel projects, with an organic fabrication capacity in excess of 1500 ton per month. “We have our manufacturing division which fab- ricates “Rigger Special” high lows, which are specialized rigging equipment that are used all over the country. They're heavy-duty fork trucks with all types of different weight capacities, and they're used in the plants for rigging equip- ment, tooling, things like that.” The Bristol Manufacturing division provides a flexible service by which clients can choose from standardized products or custom designed units tailored to fit individual applications. Finally, there is Bristol Steel Equipment Rental, which boasts the largest selection of cranes, forklifts, vertical manlifts and specialized heavy lift apparatuses in the mid-west. “We have an extensive array of cranes and all kinds of equipment at our plant that we subcontract rent out to clients all over the coun- try,” says Payne. “And we also do our own trucking, mostly in state, some out-of-state.” | 66 SEPTEMBER 2023Each of these three divisions is experiencing growth in tandem with the growth of the structural steel industry as a whole, and as business expands rapidly it is important to understand how quality is maintained across the board. “We are an AISC Certified Fabricator and Erector,” Payne says proudly, speaking of the American governing body of the steel industry. “We have high quality standards that we have to maintain, and we get audited every year. A lot of our projects now require these certifications and we have been certified for the past 10 years. Quality standards are high, especially in the automotive industry. They want the best of the best, right?” Speaking of its commitment to quality service, Payne tells me about some of the high-class projects Bristol Steel has worked on over the years. “We like larger projects, obviously. We don't want to do 50 jobs a year to do 30 million. We want to do 10 jobs a year to do 30 million. We want quality, not necessarily quantity, and we don't aspire to make our profit up on volume.” Bristol Steel ensures that at each phase of fabrication there’s a dedicated full-time Quality Control Per- son that reports directly to each shop Manager, checking that each piece of steel is dimensionally correct with the appropriate finish. Another method by which high quality is upheld is through Chairman Ray Oliver, who continues to play a significant role in the day-to-day running of the business. One of the keys to success, Payne believes. “A job we've done recently is the Ford Rouge project down in Dearborn, MI on the main plant, which is where everything started for Henry Ford. That's a turnkey plant where they started building up Model T's back in the early 1900s. They had a waterway that ran through that plant there, the freighters would come through and dump raw materials right there. Ford would process them on his own at his own smelting, he did everything there start to finish back in the early days.” In this way, Bristol Steel has been connected to the Michigan automo- tive industry throughout the entirety of its lifecycle, from Henry Ford’s beginnings at Ford Rouge to the introduction, and no doubt imminent takeover, of the electric vehicle. “We're doing a multi-story building in Lansing, Michigan, a testing facility for Neogen Corporation. We're in the field right now erecting that job out. We've done a lot of University of Michigan work including new structures like Ross School of Business down at the U of M campus in Ann Arbor. We've also done joist and deck work for Toyota. Whatever our clients want or need, that's what we do. We really don't have any limitations.” Bristol Steel has its eyes firmly set on expansion, and that includes not only in its square footage, but also its equipment and their facilities. “Our new equipment is going to make us 30-40% more efficient, and in turn our ability to take on more work is expanded by 30-40% too.” With the Electric Vehicle acting as a catalyst for a fresh boom in the automotive industry, the company sees no signs of slowing down on that front. Still though, it also plans to build on new relationships in different markets including commercial and industrial. As Payne explains, there is no limit to the smart building solu- tions that steel, and in particular Bristol Steel, can provide. “You’ve got to grow. You’ve got to adapt. You’ve got to expand your sales and your philosophies all the time,” he says. This is a philosophy in and of itself, and a pathway to success, inno- vation, and longevity in the industry. “We’ve been around for almost 45 years, and I don’t see anything stopping us from being around for another 45.” | 67 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONWRITTEN BY AOIFE CHANEY E very day, products are transported all over the globe from warehouse to shipping container to delivery van, and then carried around the country in pursuit of their final destina- tion. More often than not, they arrive at their endpoint in the same perfect condition they left the warehouse in. This is not a result of the product’s own ability to endure these journeys unscathed, but rather of the packaging that protects it at every twist and turn along the way. Protective is a key word in Alleguard’s story and one that extends beyond its high-quality protective packag- ing solutions. “We’re protecting products, we’re protecting peo- ple, and we’re protecting the earth through sustainability,” says Laura Catalan, Alleguard’s Director of Marketing. Alleguard’s name is a combination of Allegiance – that is to its employees, companies, and suppliers – and Guarding, or protecting, which is at the root of its offering. “Whether it be | 68 SEPTEMBER 2023a refrigerator being shipped, a life-saving vaccine, or a home from a hurricane, our products can bring a sense of security that other products can’t provide.” Alleguard is the result of an ongoing rebrand which sees the amalgamation of six legacy companies, each leading manufacturers in their respective industries, under one umbrella and in the name of collective success. “All the legacy companies bring in different aspects of the business,” says Catalan, “giving Alleguard a combined 60-year company history that has allowed us to penetrate new market segments and expand our footprint.” A market leader in the engineering, delivery, and service of foam solutions, Alle- guard covers three major product categories for North Amer- ica: Construction, Protective Packaging, and Cold-Chain. “We can really produce any type of custom foam product to suit our customer’s needs,” Catalan says, before taking me through the three product categories that form Alleguard’s portfolio. | 69 APEIRON CONSTRUCTIONNext >