An assembly and method for facilitating the attachment of a metal alloy hood to the concrete shell of a spray absorber tower, and compensating for relative radial thermal expansion of the hood and the shell during start up, shut down, and operation of the spray absorber tower, while also providing accurate and effective distribution of shear forces circumferentially along a horizontal plane from the metal alloy hood to anchor rods partially embedded in the concrete shell of the spray absorber tower. A shoulder plate affixed to the hood and perforated with a plurality of anchor rod engaging bores is lowered onto and seated on top of the concrete shell. Each of the bores is configured with an ellipsoidal cross section and has a cross sectional greater than that of the anchor rod engaged therewith. After the seating of the metal alloy hood onto the concrete shell, a pipe sleeve of circular cross section is mounted over each anchor rod and is extended into the bore to rest against the top of the concrete shell. The outer diameter of the circular pipe sleeve is substantially equal to the minor axis of the ellipsoidal configured bore so that the pipe sleeve is in contact with the shoulder plate at the intersection of the minor axis and the sleeve wall. The annular space formed between the circular pipe sleeve and the anchor rod is filled with non-shrink grout to provide an accurate and effective distribution of shear forces circumferentially along a horizontal plane from the metal alloy hood to each of the anchor rods. Slots are formed along the major axis of the ellipsoidal configured bore between the inner surface of the bore and the outer surface of the circular pipe sleeve to accommodate the relative radial thermal expansion of the metal alloy hood and the concrete shell of the spray absorber tower.