The Mill240 Apartments II project in Lawrence, Massachusetts, involves a massive renovation of the former Newark Paper Mill, which has been unoccupied for several decades. PC Construction was selected to bring these buildings back to life and has been on site since June 2017. The project consists of the renovation of the two existing mill facilities – a seven-story, 344,000-square-foot building that will house 198 apartments and a one-story 29,000-square-foot building to include 19 large studio apartments. Both buildings are located directly next to the Merrimack River, making work on the river side of the buildings challenging.
With the project nearing completion, the team needed a way to inspect the painting completed on the buildings’ exposed concrete. The painting on the river elevation was initially completed using chair swing staging because use of typical staging was impossible given the proximity to the river. The quickest and least expensive way to inspect the paint work was to bring in our drone to capture close-up, high resolution photos of each building elevation. From there, the team was able to visually inspect that the painting work was completed accurately. Within an hour, the inspection process was complete. Using traditional inspection methods, this task that would have taken many hours to complete while presenting severe safety challenges.
The use of drones in the construction industry and here at PC has grown substantially over the past few years, not only for inspection purposes, but because drones offer capabilities that can simplify processes and increase efficiency. Stay tuned to hear more about how PC Construction is putting drones to work on our projects.