Topping off ceremony marks milestone at Federal Courthouse

Workers helping to build the new federal courthouse building in Cedar Rapids hit a construction milestone on Friday.

Members of Iron Workers Local 89 in Cedar Rapids decorated the final steel beam for a “topping out” ceremony at the job site.  A topping out marks the completion of the “skeleton” or frame of any large building.  Trades workers and others connected with the project signed their names to the final beam.  A flag rode on the beam as it was hoisted into place and then secured by two iron workers.

Jim Snedegar, a GSA Public Building Services manager, explained that such an event is a traditional way to celebrate progress on a project.

“It's a commemorative milestone for the iron workers.  It signifies the end of the superstructure erection and we're approximately about a third of the way through the overall construction at this point,” Snedegar said.

The General Services Administration says the federal courthouse project in Cedar Rapids remains on schedule.  The construction completion date is still sometime in the late summer of 2012.  The building should open in the fall of 2012.  The next major construction celebration will be the opening of the building.

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