Catwalk

I worked as a project engineer intern for Vulcan Materials during the summer of 2023 in Nashville, TN. During my time with the company, this project was by far the largest I undertook. The goal of this project was to construct a new catwalk between towers 1 and 2 at the Danley rock quarry plant. This catwalk needed to be around 82 feet long, with its highest point being 36 feet off the ground. This being my first engineering internship and just finishing my sophomore year, this project was very intimidating to be taking on solo. Although my supervisor was a phone call away should I have any questions, the project was my responsibility. Nevertheless, over two and a half months of hard work, repeated failed designs, and times of discouragement I was able to finally curate a design that pleased my supervisor and the plant’s manager. My design also will decrease employee travel time by 87%. Below you can see the before picture and a CAD drawing of both towers plus the future catwalk.

Below are a few of the different CAD drawings needed for the catwalk. The design was made to be modular since the structure would be fabricated off-site and need to be transported by truck to the plant.