About the Knowledge Center: Construction Milestones and Facts

Ceremonial groundbreaking: September 9, 2005
Start of construction: March 2006
Official opening: August 11, 2008
Creating the foundation for the Knowledge Center involved the largest continuous concrete pour in northern Nevada history, involving 12 million pounds of concrete, or 11 miles worth of four-foot-wide sidewalk. This amazing pour was necessary to support the weight of the automated storage and retrieval system.
Construction workers mastered a 620-yard concrete pour from 60 feet in the air to construct the concrete beam bridging the massive entry columns. The complete beam is 150 feet long, 15 feet tall, and five feet, eight inches wide.
From the center of the second floor of the Knowledge Center, you look up about 77 feet to find the ceiling. The atrium's volume is 442,800 cubic feet.
The total structure incorporates 21,000 cubic yards of concrete. That represents 2,110 truckloads, all poured at night. The building, in total, used enough concrete to build a four-inch-deep, four-foot-wide sidewalk all the way to Lovelock! Other materials include 3,600 tons of steel and 65 miles of electrical conduit!