The Chicago building made possible through laser measurement

Columbia College Chicago, established in 1890, opened a new student centre in 2019 which prides itself as “the cornerstone of the student experience at Columbia.” The roughly 10,500 square metre, five-storey building was designed with a strong focus on the students’ needs, involving students in ‘Dream Out Loud’ input sessions. This ensured that the building would be a modern, welcoming space lacking nothing for the student experience. But to fit such a large, exceptional building on a plot in the middle of the city, where it’s surrounded by pre-existing infrastructure, was no small challenge. But the company in charge of the project, Pepper Construction, managed to do it with the application of laser scanners from Faro.

 One of the major challenges attached to the project was that the building abuts an elevated railway track. It was vital to have extreme precision in mapping out the position of the track in order for construction to remain within Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) regulations. “It was critical during our planning process to capture the exact location of the tracks. One of the first things we did was laser scan them. We then modelled that information and used it in all subsequent project planning,” explains Jen Suerth, Vice President of Pepper Construction Technical Services.

One of the major advantages for Pepper Construction in the use of laser scanners was the simple conversion to 3D models from the scans. This allowed them to show visual 3D models to the CTA, who needed to be kept informed at every stage of the project on changes or developments that took place.

The scale of the project meant that the building was split into two phases: from west to east. The first phase, the west, was on the side of the track. This meant that further precision was needed in coordinating the lining up of the two phases, which was achieved with the help of the 3D models.

The laser scanners were used again when it came to pouring concrete. As Jen Suerth explained: “We utilize laser scanning as part of our concrete quality program. For every concrete pour, we scan three times. This captures the information inside the slab that’s covered up, evaluates floor flatness and confirms we’re in compliance with the design. The data we capture from laser scanning the pour helps us communicate our work quality to the client.”

This process was explained by Eveart Foster, Pepper Construction Technical Services Engineer:

“Our field tech begins by using our FARO® Laser Scanner to scan the pour. He’ll send me the pre-pour scans which basically allow me to see in 3D the posttension cables, conduits, rebar, all the slab openings. We take this point cloud and register it in FARO SCENE, then create a ReCap™ file which can be used in Revit™, AutoCAD®, any Autodesk® product. We then document where the post-tension cables were placed for future coring or for any embed issue in relation to the cable.”

Pepper Construction mentions how laser scanners not only improve the quality of their builds, but also saves them a significant amount of money: up to $200,000USD (£165,000GBP) per build, which is no small feat on a project such as this student centre, of which the total cost was around $50 million USD (£40 million GBP). Saving these costs means multiple scanners can be employed on a single project, further improving the accuracy, quality and consistency of the build.

“We haven’t really seen the full value of where this could lead,” he asserts. “Laser scanning is still undervalued. Owners should insist on laser scanning for every project. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with software engineers and FARO to reimagine this portion of the construction processes. We’re finally nearing a time when we can truly create what we dream. That’s exciting,” says Foster.