SHAPING OUR INDUSTRY
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The 105,950 SF school serves as the County’s 27th elementary school and will ultimately support a capacity of 900 students. Project site elements included associated bus parking lot, bus loop, car parking lot, playground area, a courtyard, and two ball fields. The two-story school is framed with structural steel and load-bearing masonry walls, which are supported by conventional shallow foundations with on-grade slabs. In addition to classrooms, the school houses a media center, multipurpose room, gymnasium, cafeteria space, an administrative suite, and an elevator.
WDP performed a geotechnical site exploration, which included the advancement of 78 soil test borings to determine the physical and geotechnical engineering characteristics of the subsurface soils in the proposed construction areas. Soil samples and field data were collected and taken back to WDP’s in-house laboratory to assist in the description of the subsurface conditions as well as the determination of the ability of the existing soils to support the proposed new school structure. WDP provided the County with design recommendations within a Geotechnical Investigation report. In addition, WDP’s scope of services included third-party/special inspections and materials testing services for concrete, masonry, structural steel, asphalt, and spray-foam insulation.
A significant problem Loudoun County Public Schools wanted to avoid was excessive sitework costs and associated change orders. Understanding our client’s concerns, WDP performed extensive geotechnical site exploration to reliably identify and characterize subsurface soil in bedrock conditions. From the test boring data, WDP was able to identify and quantify the expansive clay cubic yardage requiring undercut and replacement. In addition, WDP was able to profile the bedrock surface to identify the quantity of hard rock excavation. Together, this soil and bedrock quantity estimation allowed Loudoun County Public Schools to more confidently bid the project as an unclassified excavation specification. With the help of WDP’s soil and rock quantity evaluation and geotechnical recommendations, Loudoun County Public Schools was able to better manage sitework activities, control costs, and stay on schedule. The project’s unclassified excavation specification required the contractor to include all blasting and undercut/replacement costs in their proposal and not submit costly sitework change orders.
Loudoun County Public Schools
Brambleton, VA