Denver, CO, March 14, 2022 – Industrial Constructors/Managers, Inc. (ICM), a Class A General Contractor specializing in industrial construction and plant maintenance, today announced it has partnered with Hensel Phelps to help Molson Coors build a new modernized facility that’s responsible for the brewery’s fermenting, aging, filtration and cellaring systems. The project is part of Molson Coors G150 plan to overhaul and modernize the brewery as part of the facility’s 150-year anniversary.
ICM’s portion of the project involves fabricating and erecting the structural steel for the new facility, which will begin this summer. The structure will replace the existing fermenting process that’s in the adjacent building, helping to shorten the production process and modernize how products are produced, including helping to ensure that products are developed according to the right quality control standards before they’re packaged and distributed to consumers.
“The new building will be 1,000 feet long, 200 feet wide and 60 feet tall, requiring roughly 1,750 tons of steel,” said Bill Niday, estimator at ICM. “Given the sheer volume of material, coordinating the sequence of the build will be extremely challenging, particularly since the brewery will need to maintain operations throughout construction. Luckily, ICM loves a challenge, so we’re looking forward to working with Hensel Phelps and Molson Coors to determine the right solutions that will enable new construction to happen while not impeding current operations.”
The project builds on ICM’s prior work conducted in 2020 that moved the brewery’s cooling towers and evaporative condensers from ponds outside the facility to the roof of the brewery. The move was done to better utilize the land where the ponds were located and upgrade the way the brewery condensed its NH3 refrigeration to a more modern method of refrigeration. That project was accomplished over three months during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Moving the cooling towers to the roof of the brewery involved reinforcing existing interior steel columns and exterior concrete panels, while also adding a new level of structural steel to the roof so that it could sustain the weight of the cooling towers, which weighed 1.4 million pounds once operational,” said Niday. “ICM self-performed almost all aspects of the project, enabling it to be completed more efficiently and at less cost, all while keeping the brewery operational. This gave us a good background to apply to this project so that it can similarly be completed on time and on budget.”
The project will employ 25 ICM employees, which will mainly consist of ironworkers. They will join ICM’s 12 employees who are currently on-site handling maintenance, repairs and capital projects.
