BAE Systems

NSS Manufacturing Facility | Cedar Rapids, IA

BAE is an international leader in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology for both commercial and military clients. The new facility in the heartland was developed to bring the company’s design and construction employees into a single space – optimizing the process for manufacturing, engineering, and operations.

West Plains Engineering provided electrical engineering design for the Iowa location, which officially welcomed its 800 new employees in November of 2022.

This project faced multiple obstacles during both design and construction of the facility. The effort began design during the global Covid-19 pandemic, which brought manufacturing to a halt and caused lead times for equipment to extend well beyond a year. To combat this, the electrical design team had to size the electrical riser and all branch circuit breakers in the building prior to MEP and Owner equipment being finalized.

The next challenge was an aggressive construction timeline. To meet the project requirements, construction had to begin as a core and shell building to allow earthwork, foundations, and steel to be installed. This required close coordination between the design team and construction crews for navigating the building’s needs as construction began.

The last obstacle was the sheer volume of Owner equipment. Over 2,000 pieces of equipment were sized and located for this building. This involved multiple revisions and required on-the-fly changes and expansion to the original design to meet the requirements.