One year away from the scheduled on-edition date and a year after groundbreaking, the pace of The Courier-Journal’s production facility expansion in downtown Louisville, Ky., has picked up significantly, with equipment installation beginning while construction continues.

With the high portions of the press bay complete, the focus in the pressroom is putting the last pieces into place to make the building ready for press installation.

Alvey spirals sit in as-yet-unfinished mailroom.
Photo: The Courier-Journal

The press tabletop will receive some attention, as the concrete has had nearly three months to cure. The box-outs on the tabletop where the actual feet of the units sit will be re-measured to determine their elevation, and they will be ground down or grouted up until they are within the +/- 3 millimeters specified by [press vendor] KBA. Initial indications show very few spots that will need to be adjusted.

Following elevation adjustments, the top plane of the tabletop will receive a 1/4-inch thick coating of epoxy to protect the surface.

The quiet room will also get this epoxy coating, providing a seamless transition from one working area to another.

More like a building

The production facility began to look less like a construction site and more like a building as scaffolding came down to reveal the finished exterior.

The main exception was the large opening left in the north side of the building where the press units will be brought in. This are will be completed in the spring when the initial rigging of the press is complete.

Equipment installation actually began at the end of the production process, working backwards. The Cannon Equipment Co. cart loader installation was completed during the week of Sept. 8. This will allow field-verification of its location as the Alvey Systems’ Bundle Distribution System begins installation.

Alvey’s BDS was the next system to arrive on-site, with the platforms and catwalks for the sorter beginning installation on Sept. 8 as well.

Precious space

As equipment began to roll in, space began to be a precious commodity. Pallets of inserts for the Sunday newspaper competed with window frames and conveyor sections for the same space. Although every effort is made to keep the construction separate from the daily operations, this phase of the project again highlighted the challenges of expanding a facility while still producing a seven-day-a-week product.

Remarkably, there have not been any major conflicts, according to the newspaper staff, although tempers have occasionally run short.

Late September also saw delivery of the multiweb simulator, provided by Sinapse. The much-anticipated simulator was designed into an EAE console identical to the ones that will be provided with the press. As a training tool, the simulator will be invaluable in helping The Courier-Journal’s press operators in making the technological jump from letterpress/flexo to a shaftless offset press.

The simulator can be configured with scenarios and problems that the press operators must solve before producing salable papers. A high-speed virtual private network links the simulator with both Sinapse and EAE to troubleshoot any issues with the software as they come up.

Although the simulator will eventually reside in the quiet room, it has been temporarily installed in a conference room until its permanent home is completed.