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Despite the dominance of cast-in-place concrete in the New York-area residential high-rise market, some corners of the steel industry are trying to make inroads with new construction offerings.
One firm that has launched an effort to attract residential developers is Girder-Slab Technologies of Cherry Hill, N.J., which produces the D-Beam - a steel beam embedded within a precast concrete slab. The system involves cutting holes in the steel beam to reduce weight. It also leaves the bottom flange longer than the top flange so that the precast concrete slab can rest on it, thereby forming a ceiling for the floor below.
"What we bring to the table is this unique, low-profile beam which is only 8 or 9 in. deep," said Daniel Fisher Sr., a Girder-Slab manager. "But what is exposed beneath the precast slab is its bottom flange, which is only a half-inch thick. So it gives the same floor-to-floor heights as cast-in-place concrete."
While the technique hasn't penetrated the New York City market, the technology has recently been used in several buildings in New Jersey, including the North Beach, a 157-unit luxury condominium development going up on the Asbury Park waterfront, and on two graduate student dormitories built at Princeton University in 2003.
Fisher said the system is competitive with cast-in-place concrete because it can be faster to erect and, with no wet pouring of concrete slabs, work can continue even in dead of winter.
"For a cast-in-place structure, 90 percent of the labor is performed onsite," Fisher added. "With our system, maybe 80 percent of the labor is done offsite in factories."
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