Projects / K-12 Education

The project was Civil Site Design for a new two-story Elementary School located on a 9-acre tract of land in Austin. The scope of work included demolishing an existing single-story elementary school, the construction of a new two-story Elementary School, stormwater and water quality treatment facilities, parking, fire and bus lanes, pedestrian paving, and water, wastewater, and storm water utility improvements. Due to increased impervious cover from the proposed development, we designed a stormwater management system for stormwater peak attenuation and water quality treatment to meet local regulatory requirements.  Where areas of the site were not favorable to drain to the primary treatment area, a sand filtration basin, rain gardens were designed to meet the stormwater treatment requirements. Water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities were designed to accommodate the new building, while maintaining utility services to the existing school buildings. The new utilities were designed to make connection to existing City infrastructure in the Right-of-Way. Our structural team was responsible for the design of eleven retaining wall sections in the project. Multiple retaining walls were designed to resist lateral earth pressures for landscaping and tree protection purpose. Other retaining walls were designed to resist hydrostatic water pressure from the detention ponds.  A new sedimentation and filtration basin was also developed for the site.

Our Civil and Structural teams worked closely together on multiple site retaining walls to address the challenges presented by unique geometry and elevation changes of the detention pond and the protection of all required trees.

This project had challenges as the existing school remained operational during the new construction. The new school is very important to the neighborhood and local community. Our team coordinated closely with the other design team members to make every effort to incorporate the needs of the students, parents, teachers, and staff members. Phase II of the project will be to complete the demolition of the previous school location and the construction of a new parking lot.

Jose I. Guerra Inc. provided complete civil and structural engineering design and construction administration services.

Project achieved LEED Silver Certification