Rudolph Libbe Group Wins Two Major Honors for Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant Expansion

rlg wins build ohio award from ohio agc and named best manufacturing construction project in midwest by enr

The Rudolph Libbe Group of Companies, which earlier this year finished Ford Motor Co.’s 2.7 million-square-foot Ohio Assembly Plant expansion, won two major construction industry awards for the project.

Rudolph Libbe Group won the annual Ohio Association of General Contractors’ Build Ohio Award for the best construction project in the state in the Industrial/Heavy category. It also recently won the Engineering News-Record’s award for Best Manufacturing Construction Project in the Midwest. Rudolph Libbe officials were on hand on Nov. 14 to receive the Build Ohio Award at the Ohio AGC’s annual dinner in Columbus, and again on Nov. 18 to receive the construction trade magazine’s award at a breakfast celebration in Chicago.

The Build Ohio Award is the 14th for Rudolph Libbe Group since 1993.

“These awards are the direct result of the incredible teamwork among the entire project team, from the customer to the preconstruction professionals and engineers, to our trades workers and our trade partners,” said Jeff Schaller, President of Rudolph Libbe Inc., one of The Rudolph Libbe Group of Companies. “The team’s collaboration, expertise and dedication produced an excellent result in which budget and schedule goals were met with an outstanding safety performance that was 50% better than the industry average.”

The project for Ford, which was looking to increase production for a new electric commercial vehicle, included 246 acres of site improvements overlaying three Northern Ohio municipalities. By integrating subject-matter experts and self-perform capabilities early in the project, RLG was able to value engineer over $60 million out of the project without compromising quality or scope. Additionally, through Rudolph Libbe Properties, RLG’s site-selection and incentives arm, over $15 million in additional savings came back to the customer.

The expansion was originally designed as two separate buildings but was changed to one building that would tie into the existing facility’s paint shop through a pair of conveyor bridges. Power for the expansion was tapped into the substation for the existing plant in a trestle covering nearly one mile which carried cable tray up and over its roof and into the expansion. The expansion has a heavy steel frame with 13-foot-deep trusses and 50-foot by 100-foot bays capable of hanging 13,000 pounds at any location in the building.

Rudolph Libbe worked with 57 trade partners and over 2,100 employees completed site orientation for a total of 1.7-million-man hours worked on the project. Major scopes such as concrete, structural steel erection, HVAC, plumbing and electrical were self-performed. The ability to self-perform major trades allowed RLG to maintain flexibility, control quality and safety and accelerate the schedule when needed, all while preserving the client’s budget and operational continuity. RLG company GEM Inc. prefabricated 375 piping racks from the company’s Northeast Ohio fabrication shop.

“Our ability to prefabricate piping racks off-site and ship them to the jobsite saved time, improved accuracy and meant a safer work environment because less work had to be performed alongside the customer’s ongoing operations,” said GEM President Scott Kepp. “Our prefabrication capacity through all our Rudolph Libbe fabrication shops is just one aspect of our many capabilities that helps to deliver excellent results for our customers.”