Osborn Engineering is serving as the Engineer of Record for $6.3 million of various infrastructure improvements in support of future chilled water distribution across campus. Our engineers are providing the Civil, MEP, and Technology engineering on this project. The scope of work for the MEP and Technology Infrastructure improvements includes chilled water distribution from the existing central chilled water plants (CCP-2 and CCP-3), interconnecting the two plants together, heating plant control upgrades, and academic building door security upgrades. In addition to installing chilled water distribution piping, Offenhauer Towers (a 237,400 GSF residence dorm) will receive chilled water from the new chilled water loop. The chilled water loop will provide connections for future buildings and improve efficiency for the chilled water distribution across campus.

 

The main Civil design components include routing the chilled water pipes around numerous utilities with the least impact to the parking lots, sidewalks, and trees. At critical utility crossings, or where chilled water is crossing a utility tunnel, design includes the use of trenchless technology (bore and jack) to minimize disturbances to the tunnel. Bore and jack will be utilized to avoid impacting several valuable trees. The team will be performing geotechnical subsurface investigation to better define the bedrock profile and to provide recommendations for trench excavation and dewatering. Then, the project will include paving of impacted areas, installation of new sidewalks, and tree replacement, as well as design of temporary traffic control plans to protect the public and the contractors during construction. Maintenance of traffic will include installation of temporary traffic signs for pedestrians and barricades due to sidewalk closures. A conditional zoning certificate was obtained from the City of Bowling Green. Osborn completed design of erosion and sedimentation control plans per Ohio EPA General Permit for construction activities.