New Worship Center & Education Wing, West Monroe First Baptist Church

Contractor: Lincoln Builders Inc., Ruston
Location: West Monroe
Cost: $12 million
Project manager: Nat Mixon
Jobsite superintendent: Junot Dixon
Architect: Fuqua Osborn Architects, Huntsville, Ala.

A variety of complexities in the design and construction of a new 2,750-person worship center in West Monroe tested the limits of scheduling and designer-contractor communication. The West Monroe First Baptist Church Worship Center, built at the church's existing complex as part of an $11 million project, was first and foremost a complex steel project, requiring the placement of a variety of difficult steel truss spans for the building's high pitched roof.

Dramatic lifts accentuated this complexity, as Monroe's Ranger Erectors assembled and lifted two heavy-steel trusses spanning 80 ft. long and 10 ft. tall, and weighing approximately 37,000 pounds apiece.

Junot Dixon, jobsite superintendent with general contractor Lincoln Builders Inc., Ruston, said each of the trusses arrived at the site by truck in three pieces (after being fabricated by Steel Fabricators of Monroe), then were welded together at the site with plates about 1 in. thick.

"It took us about three days to weld one truss up, using two cranes to set them," Ranger Erectors' Randy Wygal, owner, explained. "From there, we went up with the pitched roof, which is a steel frame structure including 'jack-rafters,' ridges and bar joists."

During the lifts, Wygal said, Ranger Erectors placed a lattice boom crane in the middle of the building site since nearby power lines and existing buildings would have made it difficult to lift and place the beams from another location.

As a whole, the steel erection for the worship center had to be scheduled in 11 sequences, which allowed sections of the steel to be installed prior to the completion of designs for the entire building.

"If we had waited for the whole job to be designed, we wouldn't have been able to 'dry in' the building when we needed to. The roof installation was our most 'critical path' item - prior to its completion none of the interior crafts could begin their work on the worship center," Dixon said.

The roof covering, itself, is also complex, incorporating a composite roof deck that consists of a metal deck layered with insulation, plywood and gypsum board. The complex, and expensive, roof provides a "fire-rated" system.

"The initial costs of the roof 'weigh out' over time," Dixon said. Once all its components are in place, the roof will measure up to 2.5 in. thick.