The Waukesha Iron & Metal Recycling Center, located in Waukesha, Wisconsin, has been a family-owned and operated business since 1956. The recent addition of an automobile shredder takes the operations to a new level of efficiency, though it presented construction challenges due to the unique nature of the project. Those challenges were overcome by the owners and their design/construction team, with the help of metal building systems from Metallic Building Company.

With the addition of this automobile shredder, the facility can more efficiently process, sort and ship both ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Not only are the metals separated by type, but non-metal materials such as plastics, rubber, and fabrics are also separated and recycled in an environmentally-friendly way – recovering 90% of all the materials. It can shred an automobile in eight seconds, reducing it to small, manageable pieces.

A challenge to build because of its unique design, the project required 77 trucks to pour the concrete and is one of only eight partially-covered shredders in the U.S. Despite its complexity, this project was completed in just five months and earned an Award of Excellence in the Metallic Building Company 2011 Design Build competition.

The project included three separate buildings:

• Motor Control Building: 40’ length, 37’4” width, 41’ height

• Air Building: 60’ length, 30’ width, 26’ height

• Downstream Building (L-Shaped): 144’6” length, 52’ width, 48’ height; 11’7” length, 46’ width, 35’ height

The L-shaped downstream building utilized IPS insulated metal roof panels due to the high-moisture scrap that is handled by the facility. Natural lighting was achieved by the use of 24) 6’ x 6’ and 18) 8’ x 8’ windows. Endwalls and sidewalls are clad in Metallic PBR panels.

The general contractor for this project was Ford Construction Co., Inc., Waukesha, Wisconsin; the architect was Tailored Places, Oak Creek, Wisconsin; and the erector and roofing contractor was Parson Brothers/Quick-Fab, Stockbridge, Wisconsin.