Weber State University “W”
Oregon, Utah
BEST PROJECT
Presented by Jacobsen construction
owner Weber State University
Leading design company VCBO architecture
General Contractor Jacobsen Construction (Jacobsen Building Services Unit)
A temporary attraction at the school since 1937 has finally been built into the Ogden foothills as a permanent feature. Weber State University’s mountain “W” monogram is now a permanent, 8-inch-thick shotcrete slab that can be remotely illuminated. The shotcrete slab structurally supports purple solar panels that generate more energy than the W requires for its lighting, with the surplus going to other uses by the university.
The W is 300 feet up the nearest road at an angle of 35 degrees. To use this roadway, crews cleared existing rocks and other natural debris that would interfere with the delivery of vehicles and heavy construction equipment, all without disturbing the surrounding landscape. Some materials still could not be delivered to the mountain. The contractor coordinated the helicopter delivery of rebar and large concrete forms. The concrete mix was pumped into the 300-foot mountain with a specially designed mix to prevent clogging.
To lightly excavate Site W and drill more than 100 soil anchors that support the concrete position on the hillside, crews used a “spider hoe” machine to scale the steep slope. A specially trained operator was able to use the machine’s four legs to carefully navigate the mountain and carry out excavation and drilling work. It was connected seamlessly with a small drilling rig to create space for the ground anchors. The machine and its operator had to be booked months in advance.
The location of the Weber State W also required temporarily detouring part of a nearby hiking trail, which is part of Utah’s popular Bonneville Shoreline Trail network.
This unusual workplace required extensive pre-planning. To account for potentially dangerous rockfalls, which could easily be triggered by the spider hoe’s excavation work, the team installed extensive, robust rockfall fences and nets in the area immediately below the excavation site, as well as some that extended to the sides. The fence and net were used on a few occasions and intercepted minor to moderate amounts of rockfall debris. No roads or equipment were damaged and no one was injured.
