Near Birmingham, Ala., con-struction crews are working on twomajor school projects that will fur-

ther unite a community. Magnolia Elementary School andCahaba Elementary are both scheduled to open next year.

“One school is new construction on the southern end ofthe city, and one is the renovation of an FDR resettlementproject from the 1930s in the center of town,” said Dr. PattieNeill, Trussville school superintendent. “The renovationproject will restore and preserve a school that is on theNational Historic Register and has been vacant for the lastfive years. We are thrilled to bring this old building back tolife and reignite part of the history of our community, whilecreating a much needed educational service for our youngeststudents.”

According to Neill, two new elementary schools willallow Trussville to finally look like a city school system.

“We inherited one large elementary school from JeffersonCounty when we formed our own school system 10 yearsago.”

Trussville, recognized as one of the most liveable cities inthe country, also has been listed among the ten best towns inAlabama for young families; however, overcrowding at theelementary level increases each year. There are currently 300elementary students in portable classrooms on the PaineElementary School campus, and the portables are considereda safety risk in the areas of security and inclement weather.

“Our students deserve better than this,”said Neill. “Weare creating two new neighborhood schools to relieve theovercrowded conditions and educate students closer to theirhomes.”

The Trussville system will include three separate elemen-tary schools when construction is completed. Both the newschools — one in the Cahaba Project and the other inMagnolia Place — will be able to accommodate as many as500 students. The original plans called for 400 students, butwith enrollment expected to grow, the change was needed.Officials launched a tax campaign to provide information tothe community about the two new schools. A seven-mill-age property tax increase was approved 59 percent to 41 per-cent, to provide funding for the projects in February 2014.

Argo Building Company of Birmingham is serving as thegeneral contractor on the Magnolia project, with a contractvalue of $13.7 million. Gary Niven, Argo BuildingCompany president, said the company is currently installingbase and binder on the entry drives and parking lots.

“We are completing the last of the storm piping, and areroughing the slab for a second pour of concrete. Masons arealso working on the storm shelter.”

Road widening to access the school has already beencompleted, as well as utilities that include gas, water, sewerand water for fires. Blasting at the site also had to be per-formed.

“Prior to bidding the project, the owner had a site explo-ration done that revealed we would encounter rock at thenorthwest corner of the site,” Niven said. “The blasting wasdone to get the rock removed, so that we could get the build-

ing pad to elevation and allow for the utility trenches.”Niven said the biggest challenges overall on the Magnolia

job have included the short time frame, dealing with a sitethat involved a lot of clearing and tackling earthwork duringthe rainy season.

“The storm shelter is a difficult aspect of the projectbecause of all the reinforcement in the walls. It takes three

Two Schools to Transform Trussville’s Landscape

ALABAMA STATE EDITION A Supplement to:

Your Alabama Connection • Rich Olivier, Atlanta, GA • 1-800-409-1479

“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.”

see SCHOOLS page 2

Road widening to access the school has already been completed, as well as utilities

December 92015

Vol. XXVIII • No. 25Mobile

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By Cindy RileyCEG CORRESPONDENT

Page 2 • December 9, 2015 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Alabama State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Equipment on Site Includes Excavators, Dozers, Backhoes to four times longer to lay the block workthan a non-reinforced wall.”

Equipment being used on the project hasincluded a Komatsu PC 360 excavator, aKomatsu 220 excavator, Komatsu D-39 andD-65 dozer, Komatsu and Cat 35-ton (31 t)articulating trucks, a pump truck, a motor-grader, a Cat backhoe, a skid steer and a tele-scoping forklift. Some of the main buildingmaterials being used on the job includemasonry, concrete, asphalt, steel and steelbuilding components.

Veterans Landscape of Trussville handledthe heavy excavation. John McLendon,Veterans Landscape president, said duringthe clearing and grading of the project, con-trolling the storm water and runoff after arain event was challenging.

Blasting also was an issue, as far asvibrations and air noise for the surroundinghomes and businesses.

General contractor Blalock BuildingCompany of Trussville is responsible for thework being performed at Cahaba, along withEdmonds Engineering. Dan Blackman,CEO, Edmonds Engineering, said his teamis still working on the project and will con-tinue until construction is substantially com-plete.

“The biggest challenge was putting newMEP systems into a building that was a mixof new and existing, with the front existingportion of the building being over 80 yearsold. The work required detailing site surveysof all systems, drawing all existing and newMEP plans, accurately showing what was toremain and what was to be removed andcoordinating all the systems with the exist-ing building and the new building and alltrades.”

Edmonds Engineering also provided thefire protection design.

“The fire protection system is an automat-ic wet system compliant with NFPA 13. Thechallenge is the existing building conditions.The second level and basement level usechanged to attic and crawl space due to exist-ing conditions and code requirements. Theattic of the existing building is wood con-struction requiring fire suppression for codecompliance. The attic of the existing non-combustible space does not require fire sup-pression.

Said Blackman, “The original basementwill be an unoccupied, non-combustiblecrawl space with limited access which willnot require fire suppression. The fire systemconsists of two zones serving a main levelwith attic. The automatic fire suppressionsystem is served from the city water supplywith adequate pressure to not require a firepump.”

Blackman said working on an older struc-ture undergoing renovation brings numerous

challenges, including limited space for rout-ing MEP services above the ceiling and rout-ing services around a building that was notdesigned to accommodate new services.

“Routing services around historic struc-tures can be difficult if you’re trying to pre-serve interior portions of the building. Also,locating equipment outdoors is challenging,as you don’t want to detract from the build-ing’s appearance.”

The school’s mechanical system is a four-pipe chilled and hot water system with aircooled chillers, high efficiency condensingboilers and energy recovery units to recoverenergy from the building exhaust air. Thesystem is controlled by a state-of-the-artbuilding management control system, pro-grammed for energy efficient operation. Theplumbing system contains a water softenerdesigned to extend the service life of build-

ing equipment. High efficiency waterheaters provide domestic hot water to occu-pants and the kitchen.

“The building interior and exterior light-ing system was designed with high-efficien-cy LED lights, not only to reduce energycosts, but to reduce maintenance costs ofchanging lamps,” Blackman said. “LEDlights will last five times as long as fluores-cent ones. The lighting is controlled by anautomated control system, programmed toprovide occupied and unoccupied setpoints.”

Michael Brady, AIA, founder ofTennessee-based Michael BradyIncorporated (MBI), said the architecturalfirm’s vision for the Cahaba renovationinvolved maintaining the integrity of thebuilding, while adding new amenities.

“The existing school and the Commons in

front of the school are such an integral partof the community, it was essential we restorethe area to its original image and experience,and at the same time create a 21st-centuryeducation environment for today’s students.

For the design team, that was easier saidthan done.

“Meeting today’s energy and handi-capped accessibility codes with the oldbuilding and solving traffic flow problemswas challenging. The Commons wasn’t setup to handle stacking and traffic flowrequired for today’s student drop-off andpick-up needed, so a new major publicentrance off Cherokee Drive was developed.There wasn’t any insulation in outside wallsor in the roof, and the lower level had con-stant water issues that had to be addressed.Most entrances had steps of some level, sograde changes were required throughout thesite.

“The original building, which was theonly part of architectural significance, waspreserved, along with the most recent addi-tion in the back of the site and the existinggym. The original building was designed inthe federalist style. It is all brick, with a metalshingle roof that is typical of all the homesin the neighborhood and all along theCommons. It has very classical lines andsome wonderful large arched windows in theold gymnasium that we are reusing as themedia center.

Brady said the New Deal-era building,which housed the city’s original highschool, is a significant part of the neighbor-hood.

“It defines Trussville in many ways. Itexemplifies all that is good about communi-ty, and the way the residents came togetherto support the project is proof of that.”

Said Brady, “The new entrance will be anenergizing flow into the old and new parts ofthe building, with enthusiasm created by thepeaked hall and graphics. There has beentremendous focus on energy efficiency andreduction of future maintenance. By fillingin the previous courtyard with the new build-ing, we were able to reduce the quantity ofexterior walls. Using new closed cell foamtechnology, we are able to solve some of thethermal challenges inherent with reuse of anold building, and provide room for futuretechnology changes by putting the insulationat the roof and not having an attic spaceabove the ceilings.

“On previous schools that we have reno-vated and designed, we see a more ener-gized student body, faculty, staff andincreased participation by parents. Testscores improve. It's really all about improv-ing people's lives. In this case, I also feel thedecision to restore and expand CahabaElementary will revitalize the community it

SCHOOLS from page 1

Argo Building Company of Birmingham is serving as the general contractor on theMagnolia project, with a contract value of $13.7 million. see SCHOOLS page 6

Construction Equipment Guide • Alabama State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 9, 2015 • Page 3

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Page 6 • December 9, 2015 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Alabama State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Design Focuses on Giving All Students Same Opportunities serves.”

MBI colleague Erin Harlow, AIA,said Magnolia Elementary wasdesigned with lots of daylight, brightcolors and educational amenities inmind.

“Magnolia Elementary is a newschool campus on a green field site.Due to this, we had design liberties withlayout, appearance and material selec-tion. The site focused on visibility of thebuilding, as well as circulation into andout of the campus.

“Studies were conducted on optimumcar stacking distances and traffic pat-terns, so the impact to adjacent com-muters is minimized. The building wasdesigned to maximize daylight opportu-nities in classrooms and utilize protectedinterior spaces, such as the media center,into a storm shelter. Ongoing buildingmaintenance was considered whenselecting materials and finishes to mini-mize operating costs.”

Harlow said one of the biggest chal-lenges on Magnolia Elementary wasintegrating a large storm shelter that canwithstand 250 mph winds, whileremaining cohesive with the overalldesign aesthetic.

“While the shelter only encompassesroughly nine percent of the overallsquare footage, it must protect the safe-ty of every student, faculty and staffmember present in the building during astorm event. There was a substantialamount of coordination between archi-tectural and engineering disciplines toconsider how all the pieces will fittogether, to make sure the end result willbe effective, yet attractive.”

Magnolia Elementary is 69,119 sq.ft., with a 6,559 sq. ft. storm shelter cen-trally located. Along the buildingperimeter are classrooms that each haveaccess to large windows. Inside thegymnasium is a stage and digital work-out room where teachers can use inter-active multimedia tools such as Wii andXBox 360 game systems. The center ofthe school contains the storm shelter formore than 950 people located in a seriesof interconnected rooms. Above theoccupied spaces is a maintenance plat-form where HVAC and electrical equip-ment is located allowing maintenancestaff to perform maintenance and repairswith minimal classroom disruptions.

“Personally, I love the classrooms,which have large windows to let in asmuch daylight as possible,” Harlowsaid. “The center of the almost squareclassroom is left open to allow teachersflexibility for layout. One entire wall isnothing but counter tops and storage for

teachers, so the classroom can be neatand organized. The classroom doors areequipped with special classroom locksand detailed to allow a ‘safe corner’ orblind spot within the room as an addi-tional security measure in the event ofan emergency.

Harlow also is pleased with the pri-mary color palette.

“We tried to incorporate fun andvibrant colors, but also allow opportuni-ty in the corridors for student work toshine.

Giving all students the same opportu-nities was also stressed during thedesign process.

“Dr. Neill and her staff discussed atlength about the importance of equalitybetween their existing elementaryschool and the two new schools. Whileeach school has unique design and char-acter to it, the program elements are asclose to the same as possible. The goalof Trussville City Schools is to makesure that no matter what school a childattends in their district, the quality ofeducation is the same. Having a total ofthree elementary schools across thetown will allow students to stay closer tohome with less time on a school busevery day.”

Harlow said that while LEED certifi-cation was not an end goal, overallbuilding sustainability played a role inthe planning.

“We design with front-end costs, cur-rent needs, maintenance costs and futurepossibilities in mind. That can manifestitself in material selections such as insu-lated metal wall panels and durableblock walls, but also that the interiorwalls are non-load bearing, allowingflexibility to move walls if necessary inthe future.”

Harlow said, “This project has been alarge part of my life since early 2014. Atthe end, I hope everyone is excited andhappy about how the school looks andfunctions. I hope the environment wecreated helps teachers and staff do theirjobs effectively and helps students feelexcited about going to school.”

Both Magnolia and Cahaba will servestudents K-5, and are expected to openin time for the 2016-2017 academicyear.

(This story also can be found onConstruction Equipment Guide’s Website at www.constructionequipment-guide.com.) CEG

SCHOOLS from page 2

One of the biggest challenges on Magnolia Elementary was integrating a large storm shel-ter that can withstand 250 mph winds.

Near Birmingham, Ala., construction crews are working on two major school projects thatwill further unite a community. Magnolia Elementary School and Cahaba Elementary areboth scheduled to open next year.

Construction Equipment Guide • Alabama State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 9, 2015 • Page 7

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