Anchor-Harvey has expanded its forging operation in Freeport, Illinois over the past several years. They have added three 550,000-pound presses and two 215,000-pound presses as part of two building additions and equipment upgrades since 2006. The 550,000-pound press and one 215,000-pound press foundations and pits extend sixteen (16) feet below the facilities floor elevation and the second 215,000-pound press foundation and pit extend eight (8) feet below the facilities floor elevation. The eight-foot-deep 215,000-pound press is located adjacent to the original building, which was constructed in 1979. The other 215,000-pound press and one 550,000-pound press are located within a high bay of the original building.

Willett, Hoffman and Associates designed the pile supported reinforced concrete foundations and pit walls for all five presses, designed the reinforced concrete foundations and slabs for the 2013 pre-engineered metal building addition, designed temporary shoring to protect the existing building foundation from being undermined during excavation for the foundations adjacent to and within the footprint of the existing building, analyzed the existing building framing and designed reinforcement for the existing roof deck and framing to support additional drift loading produced by the addition, designed building framing modifications to accommodate new overhead doors in the high bay and designed lateral bracing for an overhead crane bay to allow existing bracing to be removed to improve access to new equipment.

The work consisted of preparing construction drawings for use in bidding and construction. WHA also performed construction observation for the pile driving operation to determine when the required design capacity was obtained.