About the project

In Fort Walton Beach, FL on Santa Rosa Island stands a 300 ft fully operational surveillance tower for daily land-water testing operations by Eglin Air Force Base.

Eglin Air Force Base is the largest military installation in the Department of Defense. Eglin consumes more than 724 square miles of land area, 134,000 square miles of airspace and more than 123,000 square miles of water ranges in the Gulf of Mexico.

The elevator is located in the center core of the 300 ft. surveillance tower and has both personnel and freight capabilities. Heavy equipment up to a maximum capacity of 17,000 lbs is transported on the top of the elevator to the open air platform (OAP). Personnel are transported in a climate controlled passenger compartment with a maximum capacity of 1,500 lbs (6 people). The elevator is a vital part of daily operations therefore it is highly important to always be available and operable.

Initially, Diversified was subcontracted to do hydraulic system design while a known tower engineering company was contracted to do the structural and mechanical design. The elevator was built to the design but did not work properly, so the general contractor called upon Diversified for immediate assistance.

Diversified arrived the next morning to evaluate the elevator. The hydraulic system design that Diversified was initially in charge of was working great, however the structural and mechanical systems needed to be redesigned. Time was a considerable issue because the longer it took to rebuild the elevator, the longer the elevator was out of commission for the Air Force. In less than 3 months, the elevator was rebuilt, completely operable and exceeded every expectation. Considering the amount of work that had to be done, this was a remarkable turnaround from Diversified.

Services provided

• Redesign & Documentation
• Engineering Calculations
• Review applicable standards
• FEA (Finite Element Analysis)
• FMEA (Failure Mode & Effect Analysis)
• Oversaw installation & commissioning
• Oversaw PLC fine tuning
• Developed and performed acceptance testing