Scotia/Glenville City School District

SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK

The project consisted of additions and improvements to six school buildings, including the High School, Middle School and four Elementary Schools, within the Scotia Glenville Central School District. In general, the additions and improvements at these sites consisted of one to two story steel framed and masonry clad structures with plan areas ranging between about 3,000 and 25,000 square feet. The additions contained new classrooms, gymnasiums and libraries. Column loads for the additions ranged between about 50 and 150 kips, with maximum floor slab live loads of approximately 150 pounds per square foot.

Development of these sites with additions was complicated by the previous developments, which included excavations and backfilling of numerous utilities and the placement of uncontrolled fills to level the site grades. In addition, materials removed from excavations to create crawl spaces and basements beneath the original structures were apparently used to backfill the foundations and raise grades around the buildings, which complicated the delineation of the fill and indigenous soils. The construction of spread footing foundations for the additions required the removal of the loose, uncontrolled fills in some areas and the placement engineered fills in others.

Dente Engineering completed the subsurface investigations for the six school sites and provided recommendations for foundation design and development of the sites. In addition, during the construction phase, Dente Engineering performed periodic subgrade observations for the Owner and provided criteria and direction to the Contractor on undercutting of unsuitable fills from the building areas, as required.

These design considerations and scope of services are typical to the over 250 school projects that we have performed for districts throughout New York State. Some of the other more recent school district projects that we have provided design services for include additions and improvements for the following: