THE CHALLENGE
Study areas of both the Prudential Center plaza and arcade roof for the loads to be imposed during the skylight protection construction for the Mandarin Hotel.
CBI’S SOLUTION
Due to the lack of information on the reinforcing in the beams and girders supporting the plaza area in question, CBI back-calculated the capacity of the structure by assuming a 200 psf live load design for the plaza. With this assumption, and imposing for comparison the desired crane loading, CBI determined that the slab and beams are insufficient to support the rolling load of the crane as well as the maximum outrigger operating loads and would need to be shored. Shoring design by CBI followed the study with no impact on construction cost.