SMACNA member Poynter Sheet Metal was awarded a $2.3 million, three-year contract to install ductwork and rooftop HVAC units for the 240-foot tunnel. Above, Poynter employees work from a lift to position duct.
When severe rainstorms came through Fort Wayne, Indiana, water department officials were forced into an action they didn’t want to take: release sewage into the nearby Maumee and St. Marys rivers.
It was the only way to prevent stinky, hazardous wastewater from backing up into city homes and businesses.
But that emergency solution carried a high cost. Releasing untreated or minimally treated water polluted the rivers and damaged wildlife and the environment. That’s why the city of Fort Wayne OK’d spending $188 million to create an underground tunnel that will reduce the need to send sewage into the waterways around the city. The project involves digging two 240-foot-deep shafts that will connect to the tunnel. The tunnel will collect the sewage before a pump station sends it offsite for treatment.
In 2021, SMACNA member Poynter Sheet Metal was awarded a $2.3 million, three-year contract to install ductwork and rooftop HVAC units for the 240-foot tunnel. Matt Hamilton, Poynter’s director of industrial services, said the Greenwood, Indiana-based contractor had worked on a similar project for the city of Indianapolis. For that project, Poynter worked with F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co., the same general contractor overseeing the Fort Wayne tunnel project.
“So they put the team that had done the project in Indianapolis (back) together,” Hamilton says. “So we could go to Fort Wayne and do it again for them.”
A birds-eye view of a shaft that connects to a tunnel 240 feet below the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The tunnel is part of a pump station that will reduce sewer overflows and the need to release sewage into the Maumee and St. Marys rivers.
Major industrial projects like the pump station tunnel are nothing unusual for Poynter, a $280-million fabrication and installation contractor that company officials like to say does “all things metal.” With a mix of commercial, industrial and even architectural work, there are few types of projects the company doesn’t handle.
Working from 180 feet below
While the tunnel was dug 240 feet below the city, Hamilton and his crew of eight sheet metal workers were mostly working from a higher operating deck about 180 feet down. That’s where most of the duct was to be installed. Besides ductwork, the contract called for Poynter to put in place hangers, grilles, registers and diffusers, two rooftop HVAC units, and exhaust fans.
Coordination and shop drawings were done in August 2021. Poynter Sheet Metal workers fabricated 213,000 pounds of 16-gauge rectangular ductwork for the tunnel and pump station at the company’s Greenwood facility, then hauled it three hours away to the construction site. Duct installation started in May 2023, taking about 10 months.
“And we tried to put together multiple sections of duct to fill a semi trailer,” Hamilton says. “So it went up as one 50-foot-long piece. And then everything had to be hoisted into place and dropped down a shaft by a crane. We were able to stage multiple sections and then throughout the day send pieces down into the shaft.”
The access shaft was about 18 feet in diameter. Getting people and ductwork down there meant Poynter workers were in a lift with the duct sitting in a crane basket. “So the only place you could do ground work or work out of a lift was when you were on the operating level,” he adds.
Safety was key
Hamilton says that safely working with the lifts and cranes — alongside other trades — was one of the project’s major challenges. No one wanted any accidents.
Another look down into the 18-foot-diameter shaft that connects to a tunnel 240 feet below ground. The tunnel is part of a system to prevent having to release sewage into area waterways after storms.
“We were in constant communication with crane operators, making sure our guys were safe and had authorization to be swinging loads over the shaft,” he says. “It takes a lot of coordination and safety planning. Knowing our guys talking on a radio couldn’t see the crane operator, we had to be cautious.”
That meant starting each day with a job safety analysis. “It was really critical to have a good lift plan for each day … to make sure we knew what were activities for the day, who we were communicating with, and make sure that nobody got caught in a bad spot since we're hanging off the end of a crane,” Hamilton says.
Since the ductwork was being installed in a wet environment, the carbon steel duct hangers and reinforcements required a Tnemec coating to resist rust and wear.
“There’s water and moisture everywhere. It’s always going to be exposed to moisture,” Hamilton says. “The ductwork’s galvanized coating met the spec, so we didn’t have to spray it.”
Hamilton says the “rooftop” HVAC that the pump station ductwork feeds into isn't actually on a roof at all. They’re on concrete slabs, sitting at ground level above the tunnels. “You could just walk right up to the air handlers and then the ductwork all goes down into the vertical shaft,” he explains. They supply 92,000 cfm of air in the tunnel to ensure workers’ safety and comfort.
The pump station project is almost finished. Poynter completed its work in March. When it’s operational, the system will reduce the need to release sewage into the rivers — from about 70 times a year to only four, officials say.
