Cedar High School

Cedar City, UT

Hughes has worked as CM/GC and completed many facilities for the Iron County School District.

The addition to Cedar High School presented its own set of significant challenges. The original building was constructed on deep concrete piers with suspended double tee slabs, creating a basement or crawl space. The design for the addition called for a 20-foot-deep over-excavation with significant amounts of shoring for the existing facility. As Hughes evaluated the initial design during the design phase, we explored the possibility of using a drilled aggregate pier to help stabilize the existing dirt.

We brought on a special engineer to help evaluate this option and determine if it would be more cost-effective. Working with the design team, we determined that drilled aggregate piers would save $600,000 over the contemplated shoring and over-excavation.

The mechanical system for the addition at Cedar High was designed to use geothermal heat. During our evaluation of the facilities, we learned that the existing school was heated using an antiquated coal-fired boiler that had been converted to natural gas. The district experienced many problems and difficulties with this boiler, along with the operating expenses. With the design team, we assessed the costs associated with upsizing the geothermal well field to make it big enough to provide heating and cooling for the new addition and the rest of the existing building. With the cost of increasing the well field determined, looking at the maintenance and operating costs of the existing heating system, and determining the cost associated with upgrading the mechanical equipment in the existing building, it was determined that the best value was to increase the size of the well field and upgrade the mechanical system in a second phase. The money saved using drilled aggregate, along with operating and maintenance costs, helped pay for this upgrade that wasn’t going to be considered for another ten years.