Location:
Pinellas County School District
Largo, FL
Schedule:
Project Completion: Summer 2021
(Typical timeline was 8 days per school extension)
Cost:
Total Project Cost: $890,000
Project Size: 10,000 – 20,000 SF
Involved Companies
Precast Concrete Producer(s)
Coreslab Structures
6301 N 56th St
Tampa, FL 33610
https://www.coreslab.com/
PCI Concrete Producer(s)
Dure-Stress, Inc
11325 County Road 44
Leesburg, FL 34788
https://www.durastress.com/
Architect/Engineer
Williamson Design Associates
2605 Enterprise Rd
Clearwater, FL 33759
https://wdastudio.com/
General Contractor
Ajax Building Company
1080 Commerce Boulevard
Midway, FL 32343
https://www.ajaxbuilding.com/
Background
For the construction of four school extensions in the summer of 2021, the Pinellas County School District created a prototype that made use of precast concrete. With the choice of one or two stories, the prototype can be expanded up or down to accommodate 6 to 12 more classrooms. The design is particularly adaptable to increasing room as necessary, allowing the school to grow simply by adding modules. The precast prototype ultimately proved to be a practical and straightforward technique.
The Pinellas County School District sought to expand the present schools in their current location while minimizing disruptions for the staff and students. Less craftsmen were required on the busy school campus since precast concrete components were cast off site. It was rapidly enclosed so that other trades could finish the inside work without the need for a lay down or storage room.
Only an eight-day average duration was required to create the two-story classroom extensions at North Shore Elementary, Sanderlin Elementary, and Sawgrass Lake Elementary, three of the four schools that were built sequentially during the summer. The Shore Acres Elementary project had to go even more quickly than eight days. It had to be finished in only one weekend because of schedule limitations. On Monday morning when pupils went back to class, the structure was already standing.
With the crane’s arrival on Friday in the late afternoon, the expedited building construction got underway. The precast concrete panels were waiting to be used in a staging location, thanks to Coreslab Structures. The group put in late hours installing panels while it was lit up. The precast concrete wall panels were assembled, riveted, and grouted on Saturday while further work was being done. The hollowcore slab was put on Sunday, and the shell was finished in just three business days.
All of this was required due to the fact that the staging area, crane’s direct path, and portables’ and recreation area’s proximity to each other. Since access required using a student drop-off location, work could only be done while classes were not in session.
In Florida, prototypes are a common tool used to handle the state’s changing and expanding population. Once a school district has chosen a prototype, it will utilize it repeatedly before being evaluated and updated due to every three years’ worth of building code modifications.
These modest building extensions might not have been as economical on their own as a precast concrete system. For the efficiencies realized from the engineering and shop drawing phases through manufacture and installation, grouping the school projects made more sense.
For the construction of schools, Pinellas County continues to employ conventional techniques and materials including brick, block, tilt-up, and others. Precast concrete solutions were introduced to their toolkit in light of the current instability in the construction industry.
Most of the school extensions had smooth form finishes to maximize efficiency. Next, a textured paint was applied on-site to the precast concrete wall panels. Despite not being constructed to FEMA requirements, the reinforced walls of precast concrete offer protection from strong winds and large projectiles. Precasting offered the highest advantages in terms of time and labor savings on the job site. The precast concrete factory made an exception at North Shore Elementary School, where thin brick was inlaid to match the rest of the campus in the historic area.
The end product is a straightforward set of components that can be produced off-site, put together fast, and finished in time for the first day of class. Precast concrete walls allow for scaling up or down for various campuses.
