AHTNA

Grounding and Lightening Protection Re-design for an Upper Air Inflation Building for the National Weather Service Building

Overview

The project involved the assessment of the current condition of the grounding and lightening protection system.  Based on the project specifications from the National Weather Service, the findings from a site visit and a grounding test, a new grounding and lightening system was re-designed to meet current codes and the customer specifications.  After installation, all drawings were updated to reflect the as-built system.

Challenges/Solution

Unlike other facilities the personnel at the Air Inflation Building use their grounding system daily for safety to avoid any sparks due to the inflation gas they use for the weather balloons.  The grounding system had to have a very low impedance to provide good continuity in the event of any electrical fault.  Their current grounding system was not meeting code and it had a high resistance.

Results

With the new system CE Engineers designed they achieved a very low impedance of less than 1-ohm in dry weather.

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