Portfolio: Project Details
Solar Photovoltaic Array
Food Bank of Solano and Contra Costa Counties
Concord, CA
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Interactive Resources was retained by Eastwood Energy Corporation (now SunLink) to provide structural engineering design services for the Food Bank building located at 4010 Nelson Avenue in Concord, CA. The purpose of the visit was to provide a visual assessment of the building’s suitability to support the components of a solar system over a portion of the entire surface of the roof.
The building is a high bay (26 +/- feet clear) warehouse with tilt-up concrete walls, 7.5” thick per drawings and a low slope wood frame roof. A relatively small portion of the building contains a mezzanine which forms a ceiling for offices below. The walls are tied back to the roof framing typically with three bolt hold down/tie back hardware that can be seen from the floor of the warehouse. The roof framing contains 2x 4 sub-purlins. These members are not intended to support additional loads. Structural members that can be used to support solar collector loads are the 4x14 purlins at eight feet on centers and the girders at 24 feet on centers. The solar collectors are arranged for load distribution on to the purlins and girders members. The north, south, and west elevations have parapets approximately three feet tall. The east side has a smaller parapet. An observation was made that no tiebacks were visible from the ground on one entire panel on the east wall. There is a strap at every beam anchored into the wall and laying on top of the beam where it is not easily seen. It is my understanding that upon our verbal recommendation at the site, a contractor was retained to investigate this condition. The contractor, reportedly, has found straps on top of the beam where the tie-backs cannot be seen from inside the building and will produce a letter stating his findings. After review, the building appeared to be suitable to support the roof top solar collector program currently proposed by EEC without modifying the existing structure. The photovoltaic system was installed and uses 360 panels.
