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The old 1897 water tower was in poor condition. A water tower has a leaky floor for condensation water, but this condensation had run into the masonry, which appeared to corrode the steel holding the masonry together. The new owners decided to build a round glass dome on top of the existing tower that would house offices and meeting rooms.
The original tower structure was largely retained, but a lightweight steel structure was designed with steel plate-concrete floors to accommodate the superstructure. The new superstructure weighs no more than 90% of the weight of the former water tanks, so the existing foundation could continue to function normally. The water tower tapers, so there was only a very small margin left to get both stairwell and steel skeleton in and on the tower Specially, the 51-ton steel head structure was placed on the tower in one lifting action, by multiple cranes and use of triangle suspension.
Choice of hot-dip galvanized steel
The steel skeleton on top of the water tower was completely hot-dip galvanized. It extends the life span and saves on finishing compared to a paint system. Hot-dip galvanizing was taken into account in the 3-D model by including holes in all hollow profiles. At the nodes, there was a hole between the beams and the sketch plates so that the zinc could run out of the beam when it was lifted out of the bath at an angle.
The choice of hot-dip galvanizing was thus driven by two main considerations:
