Tom with MoDOT explains steel assembly at the AFCO Steel Plant

Tom with MoDOT took the video camera to the AFCO Steel Fabrication facilities in Van Buren and Little Rock, Arkansas. Here they are assembling the steel girders and floor beams that will be used in the construction of the new Christopher S. Bond Missouri River Bridge in Kansas City, MO. In this video you will see the web plates for the floor beams. AFCO uses a mobile tower crane to lift and transport an 80-foot long floor beam web plate. The web plate is lifted at several points to balance the load. The 3/4" thick steel plate is 76" wide and behaves like a flexible piece of macaroni (or spaghetti). The plate weighs approximately 15,000 pounds. That's some big pasta! You can also see AFCO using the submerged arc welding process to connect the bottom and top floor beam flanges to the web plate. This welding procedure is typically made in a horizontal position and two welds are made at the same time. The welding machine travels at the rate of about 5 inches per minute. The floor beam is 133 feet long.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• MoDOT
• PCC
• kcICON
• AFCO
• Steel
• girder
• floorbeam
• web
• plate
• Bond
• Bridge
• welding

[eppersonracin]

This is the North Shop at Van Buren. The shop you see while driving by on 540.

[mattdaddy1150]

That is not the south shop, i work in the south shop. that is van buren

[salinagrrrl69]

That is at the South Shop. Has not changed since the 1970's.