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Piecing it together
J.F. Ahern grows capabilities on ethanol project
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Line up all of the pipe that J.F. Ahern Co. built for United Ethanol’s new plant in Milton, and it would run the length of Lambeau Field — 166 times.
The Fond du Lac-based piping contractor fabricated nearly 10 miles of piping for the plant, which produces 40 million gallons of ethanol per year.
The massive job is becoming something of a habit for J.F. Ahern. The company helped build the state’s first ethanol plant and worked on four more plants now operating in Wisconsin.
J.F. Ahern project manager Mike Gloudemans said communication is the biggest obstacle on a project as complicated as an ethanol plant.
Early on, project managers realized the cost of carbon and stainless steel was higher than expected. To cut costs, they went to J.F. Ahern and asked the company to re-engineer parts of the project and finish the job at the same time.
“That put us in a bind,” Gloudemans said. “The end date of the project never changed.”
Ahern also lost time waiting for information needed to finish the job. Once the information did come, the firm had to work two shifts and 10 hours a day to get the work done in an acceptable amount of time.
The project came together and actually marked a milestone for Ahern. For the first time on a project of this magnitude, the company’s engineering group did all of the drawings, Gloudemans said.
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Project Essentials Project
name: United Ethanol plant
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The team created 3-D models for the project, which were valuable during installation. Using computers, workers got inside the building before they got on site. The process helped them avoid running into beams, ductwork and other unexpected obstacles.
The 3-D model “does save time in the field,” Gloudemans said.
He added that working on an ethanol plant is popular with the firm’s employees. First, the work means Ahern hires many people for high-paying jobs. Second, the project is interesting.
“It’s all work that’s new, guys like that,” Gloudemans said. “They would rather do new projects than go to an existing paper mill and work there.”
What Gloudemans said he remembers about the project is his employees coming together around a tight deadline.
“We said we could get it done in time,” he said, “and we did.”
— Dustin Block