For the casual observer, the second phase of the Texas Facility Commission commission commission commission commission Commission Commission of Texas Capitol Expansion and Upgrade Program is very similar to the first: deep excavations, extensive utility transfers and the increase in new office buildings that will foster greater efficiency and collaboration between a previously scattered matrix of state office.
With the changes in structure added to the first phase of the project, the next phase will add two office buildings designed by Hok for a total of 525,000 square meters and continue the Multiplock Fashion Change of the Texas Capitol Shopping Center.
Victor Hotho photo, Texas Installies Commission
Second time
However, it is the experience of being involved in this initial phase, completed by the end of 2022, which has been shown so valuable to the contractor Je Dunn.
The company has overseen the support excavation of 12 blocking of the initial project, of more than 500,000 CU, as well as the relocation of more than 10,000 linear service of services and construction of a new central plant of 19,000 square meters.
He is now responsible for the at -risk construction for the entire second phase, which adds five and seven -story office buildings designed by HK, totaling 525,000 square meters.
The new work also continues the fashion and multifarous extension of the Texas Capitol Shopping Center in a more attractive and versatile public green space, which is a five -level underground garage for state employees.
Since the spring of 2023, the versatile effort has made excellent progress towards its expected completion at the end of next year, according to the executive of the JE Dunn project, Phil Emanuel. “Much of what we wanted to do to start phase 2 is because we had this job in phase 1,” he says.
The Texas Facility Commission also benefited from the lessons learned during the initial work. The Senior Project Director Kathryn Panak explains that phase 1 had been requested as six different packages, an approach that had been shown difficult to coordinate as design and construction developed. “We have combined everything for phase 2 in a single package, which made it much more cohesive,” he says.
The Texas Facility Commission benefited from the lessons learned in the initial phase of the project, such as not requesting work on numerous packages, an approach that was difficult to coordinate as design and construction developed.
Victor Hotho photo, Texas Installies Commission
Downward
Even with these and other views, the second phase of the Texas Capitol Complex program has presented many challenges.
As both office buildings will have six levels of underground parking, Je Dunn excavated 75 feet deep for the new 165,000 square meters building in the 1500 St. and 65 feet of depth for the building of 360,000 square meters in 1501 Lavaca St. The garage of a block below the Capitol shopping center needed to excavate 70 feet below the street level.
As the excavation became reduced, the project team stabilized the walls with a floor nail retention system, wire mesh and shotcrete, installed in 5 -foot elevators.
“We have combined everything for phase 2 in a single package, which made it much more cohesive.”
—Kathryn Panak, senior project manager, Texas facilities commission
At the bottom, Je Dunn installed 149 piles of concrete ranging from 36 to 72 inches, driven to 125 feet.
Cory Cardner, manager of the main project of Je Dunn, says that the extreme depths have also been for a complicated logistics of teams. In addition to working with a significant amount of rock, “we were trying to dig and drill as we went,” he says. “At the bottom, the ramps we were using were too strong to drive the teams again, so we lifted them by crane.”
The project also required the contractor to protect two historic buildings located in properties adjacent to the 1500th place of the St. During the initial stage of demolition of the project, a heavy network was installed in buildings as a safeguard against dust and waste. Regular control polls helped keep the team alert for structural changes during excavation.
“We have also tried to keep the maximum buffer between us and our possible neighbors, such as moving our perimeter of the construction fence whenever possible,” adds Cardner.
Although the first four -year phase of the Texas Capitol complex had the Austin Center’s labor force at the important construction activity around the project area, a detailed traffic control plan was essential for minimizing interruptions.
“The enclosures of lanes adjacent to our places have been in place from the beginning and we have kept them consistent,” says Cardner. “We also try to run a tight delivery schedule and we assure us that our commercial partners know exactly where they have to go.”
Most of the work of the Je Dunn construction manager, directing the second phase of the project this summer, will take place on the ground.
Victor Hotho photo, Texas Installies Commission
Pedestrian security
The safeguarding of the high volume of pedestrian traffic in the area has also been a concern throughout the project, especially with numerous adjacent buildings that house the Texas legislature and other government functions, as well as several nearby museums and other cultural attractions.
Together with the support of the Integral Communication Plan of the Facility Commission, which includes website updates to local and extensive maps
The signaling, Je Dunn installed a raised ¼ mile cover throughout the Capitol shopping center to safely guide the center’s employees and visitors to the construction area.
“We have also been very careful to limit activities that may affect access to the area and take account of noise during working hours,” says Cardner.
As for the high profile occupants of the surrounding buildings, he adds: “Sometimes it feels like we have more than one client, but we take them seriously and approach the concerns that they may rapid.”
Most of Je Dunn’s work this summer will take place above the ground, as the team focuses on the two office buildings.
At the end of May, the framing of the higher levels of 1501 in Lavaca was underway, while the work at the surface levels of the 1500 Congress is almost complete. Now scheduled to end September, both buildings will contain post-tensed panoramic slabs for ground levels.
Once completely structurally, the two buildings will be linked with a combination of glass of glass curtain and red granite that was extracted from the same quarry nearby, which in the mid -1880s produced blocks for the construction of the state chapter.
This structure was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1970 and designated a national historic milestone in 1986.
The interiors are designed to improve the productivity and well -being of workers, with ceiling windows that will provide flexible interior work spaces with a wide day light.
The new buildings will have six levels of underground parking, which require excavations of 65 feet and 75 feet.
Victor Hotho photo, Texas Installies Commission
Improvement of tenants
Je Dunn also hopes that this summer it will end with the extension of the garage of the Block-Long Shopping Center, adding another 300 parking spaces that will be ready to open when the workers of the offices transferred will move to their new spaces.
“There are many square images of improvement of the tenants that we will have to think and manage, since there are so many agencies that enter the buildings,” says Cardner, who hopes to maintain the same boost in the new phase of the work that has been updated for the first two years.
“Apart from some meteorological days or unexpected services, nothing has come out to stop us,” he says. “It’s a project big enough that we can turn to other things. We can always find something to do.”
Jay Franklin, project manager of the facility commission, says that, in addition to improving the operations and services of the agency for the citizens of the city and the state, the renewed Capitol complex will play an important role in the efforts of recruiting and retention of government employees.
Taking a point of view of the many companies that have built large campuses in the Austin area in recent years, “we want to provide an environment where people want to come to work,” says Franklin.
A combination of glass of glass curtain and red granite from the sunset extracted from the same quarry nearby, which in the mid -1880s produced blocks for the Capitol State iconic building will be used as a coating for new buildings.
Victor Hotho photo, Texas Installies Commission
Kind people
Visitors will also benefit through the efforts of the Capitol Mall to improve an urban path that connects the next campus of the University of Texas with the AVE congress, the main street of Austin, and Lady Bird Lake.
“It works very well for tourism and supports the urban dynamics of the city,” he adds. “It was important that we had shown progress early. Je Dunn jumped -and kept things in time.”
“Sometimes it feels like we had more than one client, but we take them seriously and approach the concerns they may rapid.”
—Cory Cardner, Senior Project Manager, Je Dunn
The head of the main project of JE Dunn, Cardner, argues that the Texas Capitol complex has proven to be the type of construction company that its participants have wanted to be part of the facility commission and the representative team of the owner formed by the companies Square 1 consultants and hill International to the commercial partners of the construction manager.
“We have been fortunate enough to work with some of the best shops in the city and we have had great support from the owner’s side,” he says.
This has been especially important when the project team needed rapid actions to coordinate useful and other issues, according to the JE Dunn Emanuel project executive.
“We are all thinking in advance, but we have this complete effort for the team to demolish obstacles as they come up with it has been great,” he says. “All members of the team have had a large part to play.”
