Continental Tire Corp. Plant, Mount Vernon, Poettker Construction Co.

By KATE GENO

   Poettker Construction Co. is working on multiple expansion projects to accommodate the growth of Continental Tire Corp.’s Mount Vernon operations. 
   Continental Tire Mount Vernon is a subsidiary of the Germany-based Continental Corp., one of the top five automotive suppliers in the world. The Mount Vernon plant expansion projects will help the company produce more technologically advanced commercial vehicle tires and address an increased demand for Continental and General brand tires on the market, says Ryan Poettker, project manager.
   In May, Poettker Construction started the 80,000-square-foot expansion of the plant’s CVT Max building where the tires are manufactured. Poettker Construction removed the existing tilt-up concrete panels, installing a 1,000-foot-long temporary wall to keep dust out of the building during construction. The crew moved the tilt-up panels to their new location, set steel around them and then took down the temporary wall. The expansion was designed and engineered by Round Table Design Inc. of Mount Vernon and will be complete this month.
   In September the company began and completed a 1,200-square-foot creel room addition that gives the Continental Tire more space to store the cabling that goes into tires. This project had to be completed within a very tight deadline of just over a week while the company shut down for the Labor Day holiday, Poettker says. 
   In June, Poettker began construction of a stand-alone north warehouse that will be used for storing tires. The 100,000-square-foot warehouse, designed by PCI Skanska in Evansville, Ind., was built using conventional steel with joists, metal insulated wall panels around the building perimeter and metal siding. A corridor will connect the warehouse to the existing facility and will be large enough to accommodate forklift traffic. An additional component is to expand the neighboring tractor/trailer parking lot and relocate the existing truck scale, Poettker said. It will be completed in November .
   A design-build project for Poettker Construction is a 12,500-square-foot expansion of the pallet storage facility. Construction on the structure began in August and will be completed in October. The challenge of this project, he says, is meeting Continental Tire’s stringent insurance requirements for tire storage. Wet system fire sprinklers and seismic-braced light fixtures will be installed to fulfill the necessary conditions.
   Poettker Construction has been working with Continental Tire Corp. for 10 years and completes several projects for the company every year.