project profile

Size: 145,500 Square Feet
Project Cost: TBD
Completion Date: 2016 (Proposed)

Project Scope:
Mechanical System Assessment with Design for Proposed Recommendations

The Racine Unified School District’s Jerstad-Agerholm is an existing elementary school originally constructed in 1950. A large addition was constructed in 1958 to accommodate a middle school expansion. The building has diverse use of space and systems that span the decades of operation. The existing mechanical system is comprised of a central steam heating plant with airside equipment ranging from unit ventilators to air handling units. The steam system is also utilized for domestic hot water with the use of heat exchangers and large storage tanks.

Our current scope of work, as the first phase of the project, is to assess the existing mechanical systems and provide options and recommendations. Options to be evaluated range from the reuse of the steam distribution to replace equipment one-for-one to full replacement of the steam system to allow for higher efficiency hot water heating systems. Options will also be evaluated to address the building automation system, which ranges from original pneumatic control to current Siemens DDC. Our goal in assessing these systems is to not only address the infrastructure in question, but also the associated systems that may be impacted so that educated decisions can be made on implementation. This project is on the heels of the successful completion of the mechanical system replacement at the RUSD McKinley Middle School.

The second phase will be to utilize the accepted options and recommendations for implementation. This scope has not yet been defined as the assessment has not yet been completed. Current expectation is for construction to start early Spring of 2016.