“we have a forklift capable of lifting 50 tons, and you can see and hear it struggling to pick up a saferoom that’s less than half its listed weight capacity,” said Caruso. The selfcontained unit fit the bill on the spec sheet, but Caruso had some initial anxiety when PALFINGER first brought it in for equipment orientation and training. A lot of people thought we wouldn’t be able to do it because the structures are so massive, but we found a PALFINGER knuckle boom crane we thought could meet the challenge.” The PALFINGER PK 100002 Performance is a truck-mounted knuckle boom crane with a maximum lifting capacity of 66,140 pounds. “Before we could commit to this service, we had to find the right equipment to handle a 40,000 pound solid concrete structure. “Having the capability to deliver and move saferooms gives us more flexibility with our product, since usually a shelter is stuck exactly where we build it,” said Caruso. But recently the company invested in new equipment that will allow them to load up completed saferooms from their manufacturing center onto a lowboy trailer, bring them to a housing development or event facility on a temporary basis, and then return later to pick them up. Because a finished standard concrete unit weighs nearly 20 tons, OZ’s field crew understandably constructs most of the structures onsite. Last year we built about 150 to 170 saferooms with our lone crew, so we’ve really only scratched the surface of what the market will bear.” A key aspect of the expansion effort will involve adding a transport and delivery service. “The whole eastern two-thirds of the country needs tornado protection. “A lot of people think Tornado Alley only runs through Oklahoma, but it’s actually much wider,” said Jim Caruso, a director with OZ Saferoom Technologies. The company is preparing to go public this year, a move that will provide the necessary financial backing to enhance expansion efforts that are already underway. In 2010, Zagorski started OZ Saferoom Technologies as a product division spinoff of OZ Form Technologies, which is now focused strictly on research and development. Soon after, FEMA contacted Zagorski with a new priority list of saferooms they wanted OZ to build. Homeland Security and FEMA officials testified to the effectiveness of the saferooms before a U.S. More than 200 families had taken shelter in these saferooms, and every person inside was unharmed. The twister hit 40 OZ saferooms in Moore, two of which withstood a direct impact from the storm. was hit by a devastating F5 tornado that caused extensive damage. and Fritz founded OZ Saferooms Technologies Inc. Shortly thereafter, Zagorski and his sons Andrew Jr. Instead, FEMA persuaded him to take his technology and move to Tornado Alley to begin building aboveground shelters. After his “saferoom” passed a battery of tests that indicated it would not be moved or damaged by a tornado, Zagorski expected to hand over his work and allow the government to produce his invention. The structure was composed of 4,500 to 5,000 PSI concrete mix and weighed approximately 40,000 pounds. quickly overcoming a challenge that had baffled engineers for decades, Zagorski developed and built a prototype tornado shelter within a matter of a few days. Understanding that the likely answer was to find a way to build a structure without joints, FEMA sought out Zagorski and his monolithic concrete construction expertise. whether held together with steel, rebar or bolts, the otherwise sturdy structures would ultimately come apart at the seams when subjected to the force of a powerful tornado. The common thread was that these shelters were all built with joints, which are subject to failure. Previous engineering attempts to build an aboveground tornado shelter had been unsuccessful. Having become increasingly aware that underground shelters posed several dangers – people trapped inside from debris, suffocation, flooding, natural gas leaks – FEMA was stepping up efforts to develop an aboveground structure that could withstand the force of an F5 tornado. The agency was searching for a solution to the ever-present problem of tornado protection. His reputation preceding him, Zagorski was at home in upstate New york when he received a phone call from top officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1998. He is essentially the only person alive known for conducting monolithic pours, where an entire structure is a single, seamless piece of continuous concrete. Pure water Tunnel System and the hydroelectric tunnel systems constructed under Niagara Falls. 2 KNuCKlE booM CrANES DOINg thINgS thE rIght way Zagorski was retired from a distinguished career as one of the top formwork specialists in the world, having worked on nuclear waste containment structures and such projects as the Rochester, N.y.
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