Palatine’s New Fire Station Opens
The Village of Palatine opened their newest fire station last month to great fanfare from the community. W-T Civil Engineering, LLC was the Structural Engineer of Record working directly for the architectural firm of Williams Architects for the new 8700 sq. ft. building.
The exterior design of the fire station facility blends within the residential area that surrounds the fire station. The residential “architectural” look for this essential facility was accomplished with the use of cold formed steel roof trusses with architectural elements and several roof elevation changes, and a concealed flat roof section to screen the roof top equipment. This structure utilized reinforced concrete masonry unit (CMU) bearing and shear walls, steel moment frames at the apparatus bays, steel framing for entry canopy support, steel masonry lintels, reinforced concrete foundations, prefabricated cold formed steel trusses, and cold formed steel shear wall with plywood sheathing.
The fire station is divided into two sections: one side is for administrative functions and the other is the apparatus bay which includes the fire engines and emergency service vehicles. This introduced several structural design challenges requiring specific detailing.
The first design challenge was the large wall openings in the apparatus bay for the garage doors prevented us from using masonry bearing and shear walls for the lateral force resisting system. Therefore, we designed and detailed these openings as steel moment frames to resist the dead load, snow load, and lateral load. Special detailing of this system was introduced to limit the horizontal drift and maintain the performance criteria of the building.
Another challenge involved the 7-foot elevation difference between the apparatus bay, and the administrative sections of the building. To achieve this we incorporated two independent parallel reinforced masonry walls at different elevations to support the roof truss members. In some locations where openings exist in these walls, wide flange steel beams are included to transfer the gravity loads and lateral loads (as collectors) to the interior shear walls. All unexposed steel columns were designed fit inside the masonry cores.
W-T Civil Engineering used AutoCAD’s Revit Structure to produce the 3D structural models which greatly assisted us in the design of the complex roof framing system and understanding the unbalanced snow loading conditions. We are proud to have worked on a project that challenged us to come up with unique structural solutions based on the soils conditions, construction sequencing, and esthetics that this project required in a community that deserves this facility.
W-T Civil Engineering Celebrates Engineers Week
W-T Civil Engineering celebrated “Engineers Week” by participating in the DuPage County Area Engineers Week Expo event, “Gateway to 
Tomorrow’s Technology” at the Wheaton Campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. This capstone event showcased various engineering disciplines with over 40 display booths and 20 educational programs specially tailored to introduce the wonders of engineering to the elementary, middle and high school students; our next generation of leaders and innovators. Please contact us to inquire about our intern training programs.
W-T Civil Engineering in Southern California
Jeff Gutowsky of W-T Civil Engineering recently met with design, construction, and municipal leaders discussing future projects and the current development climate in the Coachella Valley. The general consensus is a cautious optimism based on an increase in the 1st quarter of 2011 work activity from last year. We’re all looking forward to taking on more challenging assignments as the economy improves.
We will finally unpack our suitcases when our new branch office opens in the Valley in September. Recent Southern California design projects were completed in Knights Landing and Fontana, California.
A view of the San Jacinto Mountains with snow at the upper elevations |
Craigs List of Dirt
Anyone need some dirt? Seriously! Even though we use the latest software to estimate earthwork and try to balance all sites, sometimes it is not possible. For example, did you know that, on average, 4,000 cubic yards (400-500 trucks) of earth is excavated from one synthetic turf football field? Not many schools have enough unused space to keep that much material on site. Whether you need to remove excess soils or haul in soils in order to raise a site to desired elevation, earthwork is a huge cost to many Civil Engineering projects. We have contacts in the earthwork business and coordinate with them constantly in order to provide our clients with the most economical solution to their earthwork needs. The theory is that, from an environmental standpoint as well as a financial standpoint for both parties, it would be a shame if two nearby projects could help provide materials / a place to move it to but instead hauled material long distances just because they weren’t aware of one another. Just like with the real Craigslist, we hope that the “Craigslist of dirt” can help to make that connection easier. Please note that most of these projects were not designed by W-T. We will gladly list your needs / excesses if you just let me know what you have, how much you have and when you need it.
This edition’s featured earthwork opportunities:
20,000 cy of black topsoil in the Homewood-Flossmoor area
Need 30,000 cy of material in Lake County now through spring
100,000 cy clay & 50,000 peat in Lake County in late 2011
25,000 cy of C-DOT approved material in NW Indiana now
20,000 cy of sandy loam on south side now
1,500 cy of dredged material plus asphalt grindings in Elk Grove area in Summer 2011
For more information, please contact Jason Green at jason.green@wtengineering.com
W-T Civil Engineering, LLC is utilizing the latest technology in design and drafting software to perform the engineering analysis and prepare the final drawings for construction. As a corporate member of the U.S. Green Building Council with individual LEED Accredited Professionals on staff to assist you with your facility needs anywhere / anytime.
Please contact us to see how we can help you.