Engineering excellence

Auburn continues spirit of tradition with new transportation center

By June Mathews

From its humble beginnings in 1856 as a small private school, Auburn University has become one of the largest universities in the South.

And as it has grown and changed, the east Alabama institution's driving force has been its tradition of excellence.

The quest for excellence can be seen throughout Auburn's programs, but it is particularly visible these days in the school's engineering program. With the construction of phase one of its Center for Transportation Technology, Auburn's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is taking a giant leap toward becoming one of the top engineering programs in the country.

"The technology center is the cornerstone of our strategic plan for the college to bring our programs to the next level," said College of Engineering Dean Larry Benefield. "These buildings will provide the facilities necessary to expand our research efforts while ensuring that our instructional programs remain among the best in the nation."

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Begun in August 2005, the construction of the center will provide research, classroom and administrative space for the university's engineering programs involved in transportation research. The new facility will allow Auburn faculty and students to develop approaches to highway design, traffic modeling, vehicle safety and other challenges facing the transportation sector.

Thomas Hill, project manager with Hoar Program Management, said the $38 million phase one is scheduled for completion in fall 2007.

"The facility is going to be one of the icons on campus and its buildings are being built to be 100-year buildings," Hill said. Featuring Georgian-style architecture, the center will have a traditional campus look, a standard set by Auburn's landmark Samford Hall. When complete, the entire project will consist of a central pavilion flanked by two L-shaped buildings, as well as two stand-alone structures. A central courtyard will link the buildings to form a complex.

"There will be a lot of pedestrian-only areas with lots of trees and grass," Hill said.

The concrete structures will be three stories tall with a mechanical penthouse on top. Brick will serve as the backdrop for vaulted arcades, limestone columns and other ornate stone and granite features.

With its distinctive columned entrance, the central pavilion will serve as a spectacular but functional showpiece for the complex. Its two-story foyer will feature a grand staircase, terrazzo floors, wood paneling, and limestone and granite finishes. Overhead, an arched ceiling made of plaster will sparkle with a shimmering gold finish.

To prepare the site, Drake Hall, which formerly housed the student health center, and Noble Hall, a dormitory built in the 1950s, had to come down. The project has also absorbed a couple of streets, Duncan and Tiger Drives. Grading and engineered fill was brought in to level the site.

The foundation is 25 to 60 ft. deep with 36- to 60-in. caissons. Sitting on top of the caissons are large grade beams. The concrete structure rises from there. A new central energy plant on Auburn's campus will provide hot and chill water feeds directly to all the buildings.

As spring moved into summer, there were about 150 workers on the jobsite. At full blast, there will be about 300 workers onsite, said Joe Freeman, project director with Hoar Program Management.

"They're pretty much working six-day weeks right now," Freeman added. "They do what they have to do to stay on schedule."

Freeman said the biggest hurdle on the job has been the lack of space. He added that putting a 188,000 sq. ft. building into the middle of a busy campus requires precision planning in regard to materials and people.

"There's not much room to put materials, so you schedule deliveries for when you need them," he said. "We get materials on a daily basis and a lot of times the day we need them is the day they're delivered."

Another problem has been dealing with the logistics of bringing hundreds of workers - driving hundreds of vehicles - onto the campus. Most must park several blocks away and walk to the site. Even management personnel find themselves jockeying for space near the job trailers.

Safety is also an issue - for the workers as well as students in the area.

"But without the students, we wouldn't be here," Freeman said.

In addition to Hoar, contractors working on Phase I of Auburn's Center for Transportation Technology include: HOK of Atlanta, architect; Bailey-Harris of Auburn, general trades; Selective Masonry of Pelham, masonry; Auburn Electric of Auburn, electrical; AMCO of Montgomery, plumbing and mechanical; Brendle Sprinkler Company of Montgomery, sprinkler system; Institutional Equipment Company of Birmingham, auditorium seating; EMR of Prattville, elevators; and Kewaunee Scientific, lab casework.

Hill said phase two of the project is still in the planning stages and, as with all public university construction projects, will begin subject to funding. Upon completion, the phases will together add 300,000 to 400,000 sq. ft. to Auburn University's research and instructional space.

Useful Source:

For more renderings of the facility, go to:
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/insy/