SKA has been providing professional engineering services for the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company on numerous projects since the early 1980’s. The wide variety of RJR / SKA projects include structural engineering, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection engineering, investigative and diagnostic engineering services, and roofing. Recently completed projects include American Snuff facility and numerous projects throughout RJR Tobaccoville, Plaza and Technical Center Buildings. A building assessment was completed on the historic Reynolds building, which included mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, structural, roofing, and building solutions services. After transfer of ownership, SKA designed all electrical services throughout the building.
SKA has also performed full-time construction administration services during the repair work of the RJR building, repairs included structural modifications to adequately support the brick veneer, as well as repairing some post-tension cables that were damaged during construction. The existing fire pump at this location was serving two RJ Reynolds buildings. Due to new ownership of one of the buildings, SKA designed separation of fire protection systems between both buildings. A new free-standing fire pump building in downtown Winston-Salem was constructed to house a new diesel fire pump. This provided new underground water supply, new diesel fire pumps, and new electric work including emergency backup power, fire alarm, and fire pump communication. HVAC and plumbing for the new building were also provided. SKA also performed an arc flash study on the building. The study consisted of verifying and entering overcurrent protective device and electrical equipment characteristics into a power system simulation program and calculating fault current and incident energy levels. SKA created and installed arc flash labels for equipment as required.
The BGTC AHU Replacement project involves over fifty AHUs replacements and SKA has replaced 22 air handler units replacement so far. All replacements incorporated energy efficient equipment and the upgrading of existing pneumatic controls to DDC controls. AHU’s for manufacturing areas were designed for specific temperature and humidity requirements, which were critical for production areas. Review involved study of 56 air handling units, most of which were 35 years of age, to determine priorities and short / long term plan for replacement. Some of the projects involved replacement of 3-4 chillers at one time, other units were replaced individually under a phased approach.
