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Modular
Construction has
always meant speed and
quantity—now it also means quality
by Bruce Wood
photographs by Rich Frutchey
Imagine
steering into Sachem Village after hearing that the
first of the multi-unit homes Trumbull-Nelson began
building in Dartmouth College's graduate housing
neighborhood last August was already up. Now imagine
turning off route 10 about 1 ½ miles south of
Hanover for another peak at the construction site
just a few short weeks later to find a row of them.
It's not difficult to imagine any such passerby
wondering: How on the earth did Trumbull- Nelson
pull that off?
The answer, of course, is with the help of RCM
Modular, a six-year-old Quebec firm that is quickly
becoming a North American leader in producing
high-quality prefabricated modules; a bevy of
committed contractors, subs and vendors; and the
dedication of the Trumbull-Nelson workforce.
"This has been and continues to be a real
cooperative effort," explained Trumbull-Nelson
project manager Michael Rosa. "What's nice about
[modular] building is in the first week or two you
might just have one building up. Then all of a
sudden you have a whole street with 17 buildings up
and the place is covered with people installing
finishes and siding."
the buildings are 80% complete when they arrive on
site; according to rosa, the speed of manufacturing
is matched only by the quality of the product being
turned out.
The Sachem Village project features 130 units spread
over 37 two-story dwellings. Two-unit buildings
comprise 3,200 square feet while the four-unit
dwellings are 4,500 or 4,600 square feet. The
project also includes a community building for the
300 or so graduate students and their families who
live at Sachem.
At the current rate, rosa said the undertaking could
be completed in the spring of 2007.
The Manufacturer
The modules Trumbull-Nelson is turning into
dwellings are manufactured by RCM Modular's
88,000-square-foot facility in Saint-Benoît-Labre,
in the Beauce region of Quebec, about 240 miles from
the Upper Valley. With a staff of about 200, the
factory can easily turn out the eight modules
necessary to complete a full Sachem Village dwelling
in a week. By RCM Modular's estimate, the buildings
are a full 80 percent complete when they arrive on
site; according to Rosa, the speed of manufacturing
is matched by the quality of product being turned
out.
"These are very solid buildings by nature of the
fact that they have to weather the trip down from
Canada," said Rosa.
Transportation
The largest of the Canadian-built modules is roughly
35 feet long and 16 feet wide. Delivered via RCM
Modular's trucks (tandem when weather permits), the
modules enjoy a Vermont State Police escort the full
length of I-91 before the New Hampshire State Police
finish the job. That's all arranged by RCM Modular,
which first tapped into the U.S. market with a
24-unit project in Boston in 2001.
The modules enjoy a Vermont state Police escort the
full length of i-91 before the New Hampshire State
Police finish the job.
Trumbull-Nelson got its introduction to RCM Modular
and modern modular building in 2002 when the
companies joined forces on riverglen, a senior
housing project in Littleton, New Hampshire.
"It was very helpful having worked with them
earlier," said Rosa. "It gave us a better
understanding of how to coordinate our schedule."
The first of three phases of the Sachem Village
project was simplified by the fact that
Trumbull-Nelson had an ample staging area in which
to store the shrinkwrapped modules trucked down from
Canada. At times 24 modules--enough to construct
three buildings--were queued up on standards at the
back of Sachem Village ready to be moved into
position.
Work Begins
Site work for each phase of the project begins with
excavation and pouring of foundations. Then comes
the installation of under-slab utilities, plumbing,
and electrical work. using trusses manufactured on
site, subcontractors complete the framing and
sheathing of each dwelling's roof directly on the
finished foundation, sometimes even shingling the
roof units while they are on the foundation.
When the roof system is completed, a crane lifts it
up and sets it to the side with help from a
structural aluminum tubing system devised by
Trumbull-Nelson engineers. At that point trucks
bring the waiting modules to the crane, which places
them one at a time on the foundation. After lagging,
connecting, and shimming the modules, the roof is
hoisted into place.
"The first building took us almost a whole day [to
assemble] but we got pretty good at it after that,"
said rosa.
The Project Continues
By mid-February, Trumbull-Nelson had erected 17
buildings with just finish work to be completed
before the buildings could be turned over to the
College. While that was taking place, foundations
were being poured for the next 6 dwellings, all of
which have since been installed. The final phase of
11 buildings is slated to begin this summer.
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