Project Overview:
Fox Valley Technical College is proposing to construct an Outdoor Construction Laboratory for the Construction Management Technology Program. The Outdoor Construction Lab will be located on approximately two acres of the College’s 36.85-acre property (parcel # 1324260100) at 4233 Waupun Road, Oshkosh.
The Construction Management Technology program has experienced steady growth since its inception in 2009. The current space allocated for the program at the S.J. Spanbauer Aviation & Industrial Center is inadequate. The existing mockup building area is approximately 130 square feet, confined in a room of approximately 850 square feet. This is not enough space to service the current and projected student population, equipment and material storage, and material staging. In addition, program survey labs are currently held around the S.J. Spanbauer Center. Because of space limitations, multiple survey crews overlap simultaneously in the same area. The Outdoor Construction Lab would allow each survey crew to work in its own area.
The Outdoor Construction Lab would be used as a full-scale building construction experience for students. Each semester the mock building (a footprint of approximately 900 square feet, one story high) would be erected and dismantled. The lab would be integral to the following courses: Site Layout & Construction, Construction Management Safety, Foundation Systems, Structural Systems, and Exterior Enclosure Systems. Construction surveying labs would also be held at the site. The new space would allow for the implementation of pre-fabrication of construction components, an increasingly popular construction method.
Project Highlights:
- The Outdoor Construction Lab’s conceptual design would include a 5,000 square foot building that would include an indoor training area, equipment storage, material storage, fabrication area, and a locker room and restrooms. Two shipping containers for additional storage and a construction job trailer would also be part of the lab.
- The CMT Outdoor Construction Lab would generate less waste than the current teaching facility. For example, the current program/location pours footings and a slab each semester. This material is disposed at the end of the semester. The CMT Outdoor Construction Lab would allow for permanent support features that would mostly remain intact and be reused each semester.
- The CMT Outdoor Construction Lab would provide a more realistic educational experience in a much safer environment. The vacated interior existing space would be repurposed to train students in modular heating, ventilating & air conditioning systems.