Shinglehouse Wastewater Treatment Plant | Shinglehouse, Pennsylvania

Building a New Partnership

H&K Services, a respected contractor serving Pennsylvania’s infrastructure needs, partnered with EFCO for their project together on the Shinglehouse wastewater treatment plant expansion. The project’s demanding technical requirements, including tight-radius circular structures and variable-thickness walls, required innovative formwork solutions and comprehensive engineering support.

Precision Forming for Small-Radius Clarifier Structures

The new clarifier tanks featured tight-radius circular walls that required a superior concrete finish. EFCO’s REDI-RADIUS® Jr. system proved to be the ideal solution to meet the requirement.

The REDI-RADIUS® all-steel facesheet provides an architectural finish with minimal sacking or rubbing, and the system offers exceptional versatility. The REDI-RADIUS® Sr. adjusts to any radius 18’-0” (5.5 m) and larger. At the same time, the REDI-RADIUS® Jr. can dial down to a radius as tight as 9’-0” (2.7 m)—making both systems excellent solutions for all radius concrete applications.

The system’s specially engineered small-radius configuration enabled the construction team to achieve fast-cycling times by forming the entire 360° of a clarifier tank at once. The system’s smaller-height panels also formed the elevated effluent launder slab and walls, located approximately 12 feet (3.7 m) above the base slab, demonstrating the REDI-RADIUS® versatility across different structural applications with clean interior surfaces ready for treatment processes.

Elevated Work Platforms and Deck Support Systems

Supporting the trough and effluent launder components required a tower-based solution that could safely elevate both the formwork and workforce approximately 10 feet (3.0 m) above grade for concrete placement and finishing operations. EFCO’s E-Z DECK® system provided dual functionality for this application.

The deck system carried the formwork loads for the elevated slab and supporting walls, ensuring proper placement and curing of the concrete. Simultaneously, E-Z DECK® created stable working platforms that gave workers secure access for form assembly, concrete placement, and finishing operations at height.

This integrated approach eliminated the need for separate scaffolding systems, reducing site congestion and streamlining construction logistics while maintaining safety standards for elevated concrete operations.

Adapting Formwork to Variable Wall Thicknesses

The blower building introduced a unique structural obstacle: walls that decreased in thickness as they increased in height. This geometry typically complicates forming operations and can lead to costly alignment issues if not properly addressed.

EFCO engineers collaborated with H&K to develop an efficient solution using RAPID CAST® lightweight wall forms. The design approach centered on creating a horizontal construction joint at the point of transition from the wall thickness. This allowed the crew to pour the lower, thicker wall section first and then return to stack formwork for the upper, thinner section in a second pour.

This strategy simplified form alignment, reduced formwork handling complexity, and maintained dimensional accuracy across the thickness change. The RAPID CAST® system’s lightweight components proved particularly advantageous, as workers could easily position and adjust forms without the need for heavy equipment.