OSU Interdisciplinary Research Facility

The new facility at Ohio State is a 6-story research lab, which will serve multiple disciplines. Lithko’s Columbus BURG’s scope includes mat foundations, walls, columns, and 6 elevated levels of slab.

The mat foundations will consist of a very large mat pour involving 6,700 cubic yards of concrete and 550 tons of steel. Our team is forecasting 4 pumps and 16 hours to complete this placement at the end of October.

The project has a unique feature that is also new to the Columbus BURG, the voided slab. Voided slabs entail oval balls in the slab which will reduce the amount of concrete required, resulting in a thicker slab that weighs less.  We will most likely pour the bottom half of the slab first, locking in the balls, preventing them from floating in the concrete. Once the bottom half of the slab settles, we will place the top half. Our team will perform a mockup of this prior to installing this slab.

Lastly, there are 1,200’ of 26 feet-high walls on this project! To add to the complexity, some walls will require a Class A finish, as well as some of the columns. Furthermore, half of the walls are exposed with an architectural finish.
Our work on the research facility will last approximately 11 months. We are getting started in October with the tower crane mat placement.