Roach pours the great wall of Nagawaukee

A Roach Concrete crew places and consolidates the first concrete pour for a retaining and foundation wall at The Shoppes at Nagawaukee in Delafield.

Claus Reichmann likes the new wall.

"So far in human history, there have been some impressive things accomplished, and Roach Concrete is proud of this accomplishment," said Reichmann, Roach's project manager. "We accomplished a foundation wall larger than we've ever accomplished."

The wall is about 23 feet high, 2 feet to 4 feet thick and runs 380 feet along two sides of The Shoppes at Nagawaukee project in Delafield. It took roughly 3,000 lineal board feet for forms and scaffolding and 1,200 cubic yards of concrete carried in about 120 concrete trucks to put the wall together.

This wall weighs 3.6 million pounds.

"That's a lot of weight," said Michael Roach, president of the concrete contractor.

And it took a lot of effort. Roach essentially pooled every resource it had to get the job done. The contractor called in concrete subcontractors to help with its other projects and sent everyone on the Roach team to The Shoppes at Nagawaukee. Roach had 19 workers and four lead foremen working about seven days a week for four weeks in April to meet a wall construction schedule that was compressed from 20 to 15 days.

"It required the attention and expertise and equipment of everyone in the firm, and it worked out well," Reichmann said. "The logical sequence of production still makes itself apparent. It's just the dynamics of going up and the form placement at higher levels that require greater recognition of hoisting and worker production."

It had to work out well. The wall acts as a combination foundation and retaining structure for the two-story, 74,000-square-foot Shoppes at Nagawaukee, which will eventually house two retail tenants. The structure is being built into a small hill, so the wall had to handle the extra load.

Roach finished the structure's walls on April 25, and Reichmann expected the project team to be placing concrete on the second floor by early June. But it's the wall that the project team will likely remember when the project reaches completion in August.

And it's the wall that could position Roach for similar big jobs down the road. The contractor conducted a detailed labor study on the job to make future bids as competitive as possible.

"We've definitely shown our wares, and it established in every mind and spirit that we can move forward with grander projects if they present themselves," Reichmann said. "It's what we work so hard for, and when the opportunity presents itself, you're expected to step up to the plate. We're very happy."

— Chris Thompson