AGCETN / Chatt Engineers Club Joint Event: Tour of Southern Spear Ironworks

CEC Tour Southern Spear & Ironworks

Monday, June 29, 12:00 noon start time for Group 1, 12:30 start time for group 2

Please note face masks, long pants, close toe shoes required for the tour!

This will be a joint event with Associated General Contractors (AGC) of East Tennessee.

About the company and tour:

Sean Compton, the President/CEO/Founder, started the company out of his own home in 2016.  With a passion for construction, he wanted to build the most trusted steel contractor business in the south.  Today, with 100 employees, the company has projects from Chattanooga to Antarctica.

It was the McMurdo Station, Antarctica project that caught our attention.  

The station serves as a logistical hub for scientific research on the world's southernmost continent. McMurdo hosts a wide range of scientific activities, including climate research, astrophysics, geology, ocean study, and more. It has allowed scientists to research areas previously unexplored and is the biggest community on the continent. The facility houses about 1,100 people during the busy summer months. The station's footprint grew as scientific progress allowed for more research, and expanded to a 164-acre site that houses more than 100 structures. The 100-plus structures will be consolidated into six primary structures and will ensure the long-term sustainability of the U.S. Antarctic program; this is according to information from the National Science Foundation.

The main challenge for this project is logistics. Dozens of full tractor-trailers were shipped to California, placed on a ship, and sent to the station. Work teams traveled to the site a couple of times a year for several weeks — and up to several months — at a time to do the work. Their portion of the project was to build all the air-tight structures. Other contractors then came in for lighting, HVAC, and to finish the facility. Parsons was overseeing the entire project.  Southern Spear was hired as the shell contractor.

Sean Compton will relive this project with us, as well as other projects.

Sean has 20 years of construction experience.  He played football at Florida State and earn a B.S. in Realestate Finance.  He received his M.S. in Construction Management from the University of Florida