Purcell, Mo Elevated Tank

What truly distinguishes the Mini-Composite from traditional elevated tanks is the innovative erection sequence that transforms both safety and quality standards.

Ground-Level Assembly and Finishing: Unlike conventional elevated tanks that require workers to assemble and coat components at dangerous heights, the Mini-Composite container is fully erected at ground level. This ground-level assembly provides a controlled, safe work environment where craftsmen can perform precision work without the risks associated with working atop tall structures.

Once assembled, the container undergoes surface preparation and coating application while still at ground level. This approach delivers multiple critical advantages:
∙ Enhanced Safety: Eliminates the need for workers to perform coating operations on scaffolding or suspended platforms at elevation, dramatically reducing fall hazards and creating OSHA-compliant working conditions.
∙ Superior Quality: Ground-level coating application allows for optimal environmental control, proper surface preparation, uniform coating thickness, and thorough quality inspection—factors that are significantly compromised when coating at height in varying weather conditions.
∙ Accelerated Schedule: Coating at ground level can proceed simultaneously with pedestal construction, compressing the overall project timeline and reducing weather-related delays.

Single-Piece Setting: After the container is fully assembled, coated, and cured at ground level, the entire tank is lifted and set in one piece atop the completed pedestal structure. This single-lift installation represents a quantum leap in construction efficiency and quality assurance.

Fabrication and Precast Production: Tank components were fabricated at the fabricator’s manufacturing facilities while precast concrete cans were produced by specialized manufacturers under the fabricator’s specifications. This parallel production approach ensured precision quality control in controlled factory environments.

Pedestal Erection: Precast concrete cans were delivered to site and erected sequentially, connected together to form the complete pedestal structure. This precast assembly proceeded rapidly compared to traditional cast-in-place concrete construction, unaffected by concrete curing time requirements and largely immune to weather delays.

Ground-Level Tank Assembly and Coating: While pedestal construction progressed, the steel tank container was assembled at ground level. The fabricator’s craftsmen performed all welding and inspection work in the safe, accessible ground-level environment. The container then underwent surface preparation and received its complete coating system—interior and exterior—all at ground level where coating quality could be optimized and thoroughly inspected.

Single-Piece Tank Setting: Upon completion of both the pedestal and the fully coated container, a heavy-lift crane set the complete tank in one piece atop the pedestal structure. This elegant final assembly step represents a finished, coated, inspected tank installed in a single day rather than requiring weeks of at-height assembly and coating work.

Completion: From project initiation to final commissioning, the Purcell Mini-Composite was completed in just 131 days—a timeline reflecting the efficiency of both the design and the revolutionary construction methodology.

Project Significance
The Purcell installation validates a new paradigm in elevated water storage:
∙ Proves Revolutionary Construction Methods: Demonstrates that elevated tank construction can be fundamentally reimagined, moving dangerous at-height work to safe ground-level operations while improving quality and accelerating schedules.
∙ Establishes New Safety Standards: Shows that worker safety and construction efficiency are complementary goals achieved through intelligent design.
∙ Validates Quality Improvements: Confirms that ground-level coating application produces superior, more durable finishes compared to traditional at-height coating operations.