Superior Scaffold Shoring up the Mid-Atlantic
Can you say needle beam? I just love that word. Needle beam, needle beam, needle beam.
Did one just appear?
It did. (See the photos below.)
That is a needle beam. I know, like me, you probably thought it would resemble an actual needle but no. It’s just a term that the engineers like to throw around loosely anytime a beam needs to be put through something for support.
Here’s the actual definition of needle beam from the free dictionary: in shoring, the horizontal cross timber which goes through the wall or a pier, and upon which the weight of the wall rests, when a building is shored up to allow of alterations in the lower part.
Well that makes sense. So now look at the picture. You see the needle beams?
A store in the Hillview Shopping Center in Cherry Hill, NJ wanted to expand the front entrance to their building so the call went out to Superior Scaffold, who are experts with all things shoring by the way (shameless plug). So the grand wizard of engineering, Bob Robinson, devised this nifty bit of shoring using 20 kip heavy duty post shores to support the exterior walls with needle beams sticking through.
And on the inside, Superior used their hi-load shoring frames with aluminum joists to support the bar joists.
How about that? I just realized that I’m going to have to do a post just dealing with scaffold terminology. Kind of like the urban dictionary for scaffolding. I’ll get to that so you all know what 20 Kip means, and what Bar Joists are, etc.
Anyway, the job went swimmingly and the client was thrilled. And I am happy to report that there were no Beetlejuice sightings or random appearances of needle beams either.
Needle beam, needle beam, needle beam….
Poof.