Celebrating our 26th year of publication • Be sure to visit us online at www.worldfencenews.com

SEPTEMBER2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE OF WORLD FENCE NEWSFencer’s Field Report • Construction starts drop in two of three main sectors

Effective business plan puts goals into words, by Tom Luby • Profiting from social mediaNew federal paperwork requirement could be a bookkeeping nightmare, part 2, by Jim Lucci

North American Fence andSupply Co., Inc. (NAFCO) of Oak-land, California utilized chain linkscreening to create a beautiful exte-rior treatment for a new parkingstructure at Norman Y. Mineta Inter-national Airport in San Jose, Califor-nia. The strikingly original use ofchain link helped turn a giganticbuilding into a public work of art.

The screening was installed on ahuge concrete structure comprisingthe 1.8 million square foot Consoli-dated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) facilitylocated across from the newly-com-pleted Terminal B. The structure in-cluded the placement of 3,663 piecesof precast and more than 70,000cubic yards of concrete.

The $231 million “monstergarage” is part of the Terminal AreaImprovement Program (TAIP), amajor renovation and upgrade to the

San Jose International Airport.The project consisted of a seven-

story parking structure with 3,350stalls, an adjacent and attached four-story Quick-Turn-Around (QTA) fa-cility, and two seven-story helices forvehicle entry and exit.

A 30,000 square foot CustomerService Building (CSB) completewith high-end finishes such as ter-razzo, carpet, automated glass entrydoors, aluminum rolled ceilings andcustom millwork is located on theground level. In addition, a perfo-rated metal panel and truss systemwith 3/8” mini mesh backlit withblue LED lighting has been designedfor the west façade.

The east façade of the building islayered with both 2” x 9 gauge chainlink fabric and 3/8” x 9 gauge minimesh fabric system that incorporatesa public artwork project showing

dozens of waving hands. As you might imagine, this

project did not happen overnight.Many months of advance planningand preparation were required.

According to NAFCO operations

manager Michael Swaney, whoserved as senior project manager,“We found a place about 65 milesaway at a cattle ranch where theowner agreed to loan us one of his

Shown at top is the east façade of the ConRAC building, which is layered withboth 2” x 9 gauge chain link fabric with inserted white plastic “pixels” and 3/8” x9 gauge mini mesh fabric to create a public art project showing dozens of wavinghands. Above is the west façade, which incorporates 3/8” mini mesh backlit withblue LED lighting. (Photos courtesy North American Fence and Supply Co.)

continued on page 30

Beautiful exterior turns “monster garage” into a work of artBeautiful exterior turns “monster garage” into a work of art

This is not your everyday chain link fence job!

This spectacular chain link screening was installed onthe huge concrete structure comprising the 1.8 million square foot Consolidated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) facility located at Norman Y. Mineta International Airport in San Jose, California.

30 • SEPTEMBER 2010 • WORLD FENCE NEWS

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Chain link work of artcontinued from page 1

pens for a couple of months. We builta mock up in July of 2008. We in-stalled 2” x 9 gauge, 2” x 6 gauge,3/8” x 11 gauge and 3/8” x 9 gauge,all 12’ high rolls, on a frame 18’ highx 48’ long incorporating a radius sec-tion to match the end of the QTA inorder to make sure the fabric wouldnot ‘tin can.’ You have to realize thatthe fabric is hanging vertically, nothorizontally as it usually would,” saidSwaney.

“After completion of the mock upwe had meetings at the jobsite withthe construction management firm,Hensel Phelps Construction Com-pany, the City of San Jose, and withthe artist, Christian Moeller, in orderto get final approval for what was tobe installed,” he said.

It was agreed to use 9 gauge forboth the 2” and the 3/8”.

In November of 2008 NAFCOwas awarded the contract to supplyand install approximately 150,000square feet of 3/8” 9 gauge minimesh and 77,592 square feet of 2” 9 gauge.

“The San Jose International Air-port job was the largest project everattempted by NAFCO, and the staffat the Merchants Metals Hayward,Calif. office, including Jonathon,John and Rick, was there to help usevery step of the way. They manufac-tured all of the 2” x 9 ga. fabric and3/8” x 9 ga. mini mesh and suppliedall of the 6-5/8” pipe, tension bandsand tension bars we needed to com-plete this massive job. Their attentionto detail and on-time delivery at pre-arranged intervals helped us to keepeverything on track,” Swaney said.

Custom fabricated mountingbrackets made from !” steel platewere mounted on the face of theparking structure using stainless steel"” x 5-!” Hilti expansion anchors(3,300) and 7,000 lineal feet of 6-5/8” Schedule 40 galvanized pipe.The project also used 115,000pounds of !” plate which had to begalvanized after fabrication.

Equipment utilized on this projectwere two 105’ telescoping lifts, two85’ telescoping lifts, two 40’ articulat-ing lifts, a 30 ton R/T crane, a BobcatT190 and two flat bed trucks in orderto move material from its hanger siteto the job site. The 2” mesh fabricwas delivered to the jobsite in earlyApril 2009 so the installation of thewhite plastic pixels which create thehands could proceed.

The Carlson Co. out of SouthernCalifornia designed and built twomachines specifically for the proper

continued on page 81

WORLD FENCE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 2010 • 81

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many more by searching the Internetfor “twitter apps.”

FacebookAs the accompanying story sug-

gests, Twitter has become a hot mar-keting tool for businesses looking tocommunicate with customers new andold.

But don’t overlook Facebook, asocial medium with a web presencethat can leverage the effort you investin Twitter. Indeed, many of yourTweets can include links that lead cus-tomers directly to your Facebook page,maximizing your sales effort.

Facebook (www.facebook.com)has over 400 million users, about 70percent of whom reside outside theUnited States in 15 countries. It enjoysa three percent weekly growth rate.The fastest growing age group is over25.

You can get the ball rolling bysigning up for your own free Facebookaccount at www.facebook.com. Thensearch for the names of other busi-nesses to see how they have built theirown Facebook presence. What charac-teristics of their Facebook pages willwork for your own presence? How canyou improve on what they have done?

Then start to create a large per-sonal network of participants in yourFacebook effort. The bigger your net-work the more potential. You will beable to post messages to get people en-thused about visiting your store.

Chain link work of artcontinued from page 30

placement of the 750,000+ pixels.On June 15 NAFCO crews mobi-

lized to the job site with a crew offive laborers, two ironworkers andone operating engineer and began installing the chain link fabric.

The fabric was installed using 6-5/8” tension bands on the 6-5/8”horizontal pipe. All the tension bandswere “nailed” using a powder actu-ated gun to keep them from twistingto the center, as were the pipes,which were bolted.

“Needless to say, since this typeof project had never been done be-fore, it was an extreme and steeplearning curve for both the men andme,” said Swaney.

During the six plus months ofplanning for this project it was

Profiting from social mediacontinued from previous page

continued on next page

Special jigs were constructed to facili-tate the precise placement of the morethan 750,000 white plastic pixels thatcreate the “hands” effect.

(NAFCO photos)

Left to right, NAFCO crewmen JuanJose Amezquita and Juan Lopez trimthe hanging chain link fabric.

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82 • SEPTEMBER 2010 • WORLD FENCE NEWS

Chain link work of artcontinued from previous page

always NAFCO’s intent to have asmall 6 ton carry deck crane on theroof, since it was clear and it kept apiece of equipment out of the waybecause the job site was very con-gested, he noted. “Three days beforemobilization we were notified thatthe crane was too heavy and I wouldhave to use a smaller one,” saidSwaney. “Unfortunately, the smallercrane just was too small to be of anyuse so we ended up using a 30 tonrough terrain mobile crane.”

As you might imagine, a project

of this magnitude required the intenseefforts of a number of people.Swaney said the following individu-als deserve credit for the successfulcompletion of the job:

• The construction managementteam of Hensel Phelps ConstructionCo., consisting of project managerJeff Fredricksen, lead estimator JasonConrad, superintendent Darrell Leeand office engineer Peter Mercuris.

• Materials and equipment sup-pliers Guntert Steel, Merchants Met-als, Hertz Equipment, Hilti, CableMoore and Power Engineering.

• The NAFCO crew, comprisedof Oscar Amezquita, superintendent;

High in the sky, NAFCO crew membersinstall structural steel to aid in the sup-port of the fabric.

NAFCO crewmen Ricky Gonzalez andOscar Amezquita drill holes for 3/4” x7” S.S. Hilti anchors to mount the sup-port plates for the 6-5/8” horizontalrails.

NAFCO workers install the first of the3/8” x 9 ga. wire mesh panels.

NAFCO superintendent OscarAmezquita (left, in yellow safety vest)and assistant project manager JoshButterfield (right, in yellow safety vest)oversee the installation along withHensel Phelps Construction Companyengineer and QC personnel.

Work progresses on installation of thefabric on the east façade of the “mon-ster garage.”

Josh Butterfield, assistant CM; JuanAmezquita, foreman; and erectorsJed Goddard, Juan Lopez, and JassielLlamas; office manager Mary Vargas;Kira Comini, NAFCO’s branch man-ager, and Gary Thompson, CEO of

United Fence Contractors (UFC).NAFCO is located in Oakland,

Calif. and is part of United FenceContractors. UFC is one of thelargest installers of perimeter securitysolutions in the U.S., and specializesin large commercial fence and gateautomation projects.

For more information onNAFCO, call 510-436-0755 or faxfax 510-534-5405. To learn moreabout UFC, call 510-276-5376 or fax510-276-7530. Also visit the web sitewww.unitedfencecontractors.com.

For more information on Mer-chants Metals, which supplied thechain link fabric and other materials,call 866-888-5611 or visit the website www.merchantsmetals.com.

Merchants Metals is one of thelargest manufacturers and distributorsof fence systems in the nation.