Environmental Engineering

Case Name: Construction Standards Development

Problem Description: A semiconductor equipment manufacturer was in the process of constructing a new campus on a parcel of land that had both surface and subsurface contamination. In the first phase of the project, the client was going to construct a six level parking garage, a research and development facility, and a central utilities building, with a total project cost in excess of $160 Million.  The new buildings required extensive excavation for footings and the proposed footings would have created pathways for cross contaminating the underlying shallow aquifers. Additionally, the architectural staff proposed two hydraulic elevators that would have created additional pathways for contamination to migrate between the A and B aquifers.  Although the client was a mature company, the Environmental, Health, and Safety department had no experience with new construction.

Our Involvement: Our solution was to develop a five-year plan for the campus that involved setting construction standards that would restrict drilling and excavations to 15 feet below grade, initiating an excavation permit program to monitor all excavations on-site, and implementing a strict hazardous materials control program. This allowed a coordinated effort between the construction trades, established clear expectations that were well understood by the architectural and engineering firm, and increased the level of sensitivity to minor spills and potential soil contamination. All of our recommendations were followed and the project was successful.

We developed a construction safety plan that specifically pertained to environmental controls for this campus. This plan required that the Environmental, Health, and Safety staff to approve construction activities on-site. The new plan achieved significant victories for the EH&S staff. One of the most important was the foundation design for the R&D facility and parking garage. In both cases, the structural engineers wanted a foundation that would have penetrated deep into the A and B aquifers. We were instrumental in changing the foundation from a pier footing to a spread footing design. In neither case were the aquifers disturbed. 

Another victory came in the elevator design. We convinced the architectural staff to install a traction elevator in the parking garage, thereby eliminating a penetration through the aquitard separating the A and B aquifers. The architects installed a hydraulic elevator in the R&D facility. Again, we were able to convince the design team that a shallow plunger (27 feet) was just as effective as a deep (47 feet) device.