Dec. 2006

(San Antonio, TX) - ZCC was granted a construction management contract in May 2005 for the Dr. Martha Mead Elementary School near the South Texas Medical Center. Construction began in November 2005 and concluded on schedule in April 2006. ZCC conducted punchlist work during the summer, and the first- through sixth-grade school was ready for students in August.

The scope of the work for the 108,000-square-foot, $15.6 million school included the construction of five adjacent buildings connected by corridors, as well as playgrounds, sporting fields and a bus terminal, among other structures. As construction manager on the job, one of ZCC’s responsibilities included working with the project’s design consultant, Marmon Mok Architects, on the design of the facility.

The job’s biggest challenge was building on the rolling hills of the South Texas Medical Center area. “This was one of the very few pieces of undeveloped land in the Medical Center area,” said Tim Greco, site project manager. “When we saw the property, we immediately knew why. There was a drop of about 60 feet from front to back, and there were drainage issues from neighboring properties that we had to correct.”

Another challenge was the increase in the cost of steel because of world demand and the increase in price and demand for plywood and roofing materials because of extensive rebuilding along the Gulf Coast and in Iraq. “We deferred this problem by putting extra effort into the preconstruction process to avoid any unnecessary expenses,” Garcia said. “Our value to NISD as construction manager comes from services we provide during the design phase.”

ZCC was also selected as the construction manager at-risk in July to begin work on NISD’s Potranco North Area Middle School near Loop 1604 on San Antonio’s northwest side. The school, which will house sixththrough eighth-grade students, is also a direct result of the population boom in newly developed areas on that side of town.

The facility will be much larger than the Martha Mead Elementary School project, coming in at more than $32 million and nearly 200,000 square feet. The school, a single building, multifloor structure, will also include football, tennis and soccer fields, band rooms, stages and other facilities for extracurricular activities. PBK Architects Inc. completed the design work on the project, and ZCC began construction in August.

Potranco North Area Middle School is expected to be complete in May 2008 and ready for students in the fall of that year.

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