Crews Raise Crane for Oklahoma State Capitol Dome Construction

Fri October 19, 2001
Emilie Haulenbeek

At the job site about 100 ft. (30.4 m) in the air, workers are pounding at the walls of a small, concrete-ringed room. Tucked in the top floor of Oklahoma’s state capitol, they’re demolishing the solid concrete saucer dome that stood here only a few months ago.

The Oklahoma state capitol, originally completed in 1917, was designed to have a dome similar to the one in Washington, D.C. But when construction began, the state realized it simply didn’t have the money to complete the dome, and a low concrete saucer was built instead. For nearly 85 years, the capitol has remained that way, until Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating decided in June 2000 to finish the capitol building as intended.

“This dome is a symbol of the new Oklahoma, the prosperous Oklahoma — a symbol that Oklahoma can complete what it starts,” Keating said at a press conference in June 2001, during a groundbreaking ceremony. “This project sends a very important message outside our borders that Oklahoma is progressive and ready for the challenges of the 21st century.”

After conducting a feasibility study to ensure that the foundation could support a larger dome, the state chose contractors Manhattan Construction Company and Flintco to handle the project. Forming a joint venture called Capitol Dome Builders, the companies — the two oldest contractors in Oklahoma — bid under a design-build contract, the first such arrangement used by the state government. The project cost: $21 million.

John Jamison, project executive for Capitol Dome Builders, said he didn’t think the job could have been accomplished if design and construction had been separated.

“I would say the biggest challenge was planning and designing the methodology to construct the dome. We started on this in August 2000 — that’s many hours of sitting around the table and bringing in the expertise to come up with the methodology of how to build this monster,” said Jamison.

Under the professional services bid, Capitol Dome Builders was able to provide architectural design (performed by Frankfurt Short Bruza Associates PC) and contractor services. “The project was too technical to have done it any other way,” Jamison said.

One of the most complicated elements was the removal of the concrete saucer that was erected in place of the dome. Consisting of more than 2 million lbs. (907,184 kg) of concrete, the dome, atop the fourth-floor rotunda, was sitting directly where the steel supports of the final dome would be built.

“We went into the fourth floor rotunda, closed it off and put in temporary partitions and a false deck,” Jamison said. “Then we had to build a temporary protection platform, so we utilized part of the new steel for the dome and we put a temporary roof over the saucer. Once we got the steel and roofing and work platform, we were able to box ourselves in and tear out the old saucer dome.”

Enclosing the old dome was critical because of the objects in the rotunda, which ranged from historical murals and portraits to cornice mouldings and stained glass. While some of the artwork could be removed, the murals had to be protected from the weather.

Once a temporary roof had been erected, Capitol Dome Builders’ crew was able to begin demolishing the concrete. Starting at the top with the removal of the stained glass state seal and working down to the buttresses, Jamison discovered that one of the major challenges was pulling down the concrete using only handheld jackhammers — the temporary plywood floor wouldn’t support the weight of heavy equipment. But after cutting a hole through the top of the dome and the temporary roof, the crew got a break.

“We had a little trackhoe up there that we lowered through the hatches of the temporary roof and down into here,” said Jamison. The Ingersoll-Rand Bobcat X331 with a breaker attachment was lifted by crane up to the temporary dome and into the work site, then carefully placed, with half its weight on the plywood floor and half on the dome’s ringbeam.

While the use of the Bobcat allowed the work to proceed much more quickly, the crew was still slowed by the removal of the demolished concrete.

“We’re not taking anything down through the building or through the basement,” Jamison said. Instead, the concrete chunks were gathered by hand into wheelbarrows, then dumped into a skiff pan. The fully loaded pan, placed below the hatch in the roof, was hooked to the crane and lifted out, then emptied into waiting dump trucks.

The crane used to remove the concrete, lift the steel beams and raise equipment to the site is as unique as the project itself. The 270-ft. (82.2 m) freestanding Comedil crane, rented by Capitol Dome Builders from Dallas-based Lewis Equipment Company, reportedly is one of the largest freestanding cranes in the country. It can lift up to 22,000 lbs. (9,979 kg) and has a 225-ft. (68.5 m) boom.

“It took a crane to erect the crane, and another crane to erect that crane,” Jamison said. “We could have had two large ground static cranes but that meant two operators and two cranes. We elected to go to one hook. That limits us a little bit, because we have not only pre-cast erections going on, but you have steel and other pieces going up and one hook to lift it with.”

The Comedil, which was erected on site in May 2001, will remain over the capitol building until July 2002.

“The reason we’re set up the way we are is we’re building on the top of the roof of the building. So all our work is up and out,” said Jamison. “We’re trying to keep the building in operation: keep the building occupied and the legislature and all the state government offices going at the same time as building a new roof.”

While the crane’s current duties are primarily to lift steel and remove debris, one of its most important functions will be to raise the 198 pre-cast concrete panels that will be placed in the spring of 2002.

These pre-cast panels will make up the “skin” of both the inner and outer domes. The inner, which Jamison calls a “Michelangelo dome,” will be extravagantly decorated and will hold the new stained glass state seal. It will rise 160 ft. (48.7 m) from the floor to its apex.

The outer dome — not visible from inside the capitol — will provide backlighting for the inner dome and will stand 255 ft. (77.7 m). Atop the outer dome will stand a bronze sculpture of a Native American warrior.

The sculpture and other decorations, carefully designed to incorporate elements such as the state flower, will replace some of the historical artwork that had to be removed during construction. Many of the original artistic elements, however, have been preserved by Jamison’s team.

“We brought in art conservators from Dallas and one who had worked with the Smithsonian on art preservation,” he said. While many of the objects were carefully packed and removed, others weren’t.

“These included a number of murals valued at $250,000 each. We elected to protect them in place,” said Jamison. “There are certain rules you have to follow to cover them. Environmentally, they need the same airflow. We had to put ductwork around them. We have monitors inside those boxes to ensure they don’t grow mold, it’s not dark, and that the dust and protection is correct.”

Other items, such as the plaster moulding directly above the murals, and the original state seal, had to be removed and will not be used in the new dome. But Capitol Dome Builders is well aware of the historical value of these objects.

“They’ll be saved as artifacts and delivered to the Oklahoma Historical Society. The stained glass seal that was in the top of the rotunda will be archived and will be preserved for possible reuse in another historical building,” he said. “We’re building history and you want to preserve things. A hundred years from now, somebody will say, ’Why’d they throw that away?’ So we’re doing quite a bit of intensive investigation in finding exactly where we need to take things and store them and what needs to be salvaged and saved.”

In place of what will be lost will be a grandeur that any artist would be proud of. Scheduled to be painted and decorated by J. Griffin Painting and its subcontractor, McMillan Painting, the dome will incorporate the colors of the state flower, the gaillardia, or Indian Blanket. Its colors — deep reds and golds — combined with a vibrant blue that will encircle the bronze railing, give the design a classical feel. There also will be 32 faux marble columns and 198 pre-cast panels decorated with gilded rosettes. At the apex will be a newly created stained glass state seal.

Combining the creation of the artwork with the erection of the dome has put Capitol Dome Builders on a tight schedule. The crew plans to finish erecting the steel frame in December 2001 and placing the concrete panels after that. The dome is scheduled to be completed by Oklahoma’s statehood day on Nov. 16, 2002.