University of Texas at Arlington proposing $37 million construction facility in Grand Prairie

by Kirk Dickey of of Grand Prairie TODAY

University of Texas at Arlington officials are proposing a $37 million concrete construction testing facility in Grand Prairie.

The 84,000 square-foot Center for Structural Engineering Research (CSER) would be located on the Hanson Pipe and Precast property at the northeast corner of Interstate 30 and MacArthur and would be one of the largest structural testing centers in the world.

“The laboratory facility will have the capability of testing full-scale structures of various sorts — beams that would go on a building or on a bridge or railroad cars or pieces of an airplane,” UTA Dean of Engineering Bill Carroll said.

“This kind of thing is very important and right now there is no facility in this part of the state that can do that. And the facility that we are going to be building will allow things that can’t even be done in the U.S. at the present time.”

That is because of the size of the laboratory setting — 53,083 square feet, with 18,000 square feet of reaction floor and two 50-foot tall reaction walls. UT-Arlington students and faculty will use these “strong walls” and “strong floor” to test concrete materials and building processes.

The size of the structure is great enough that they can test full-size bridge beams and can apply loads to it that are equivalent or greater than they would in its actual life.

A three story, 31,455-square -foot office building alongside the lab will hold offices for faculty, staff and students as well as two classrooms and two conference rooms. Carroll said the classrooms primarily will be used for offering short courses and continuing education classes that relate to the research being done, but also would be available to use for regular teaching programs as well.

The office and classroom part of the building is not very expensive. Most of the money will go into the concrete floor, which will have two-and-a-half feet of concrete full of heavy reinforcement steel.

The facility is by no means to replace the UTA Engineering program.

“It is a big facility, but it is not quite that big or designed for that purpose,” Carroll said.

Still, Carroll said he believes the facility will cast a favorable light on the city and could spur growth in that section of the city.

“I don’t think there is any downside from the Grand Prairie point of view and certainly some upside potential,” he said. “It’s definitely going to bring in grad students, faculty members and engineering researchers from other parts of the country and the world.”

Grand Prairie Business Development Director Bob O’Neal said the goal is to build the center by 2009. He and Carroll confirmed that the school is now trying to raise private-sector funding for the facility.

Carroll projected that the majority of the building’s funding could come from the private sector, although the University of Texas System will assist in the construction.

The facility has already benefitted from the land donation by Hanson. O’Neal said that the deal struck by the university and company made sense.

“There is a worldwide need and we’ve got one of the world’s banner companies in construction techniques using concrete in the city and they worked out a deal with UTA,” he said. “They have been a terrific company around Grand Prairie for a long time.”

O’Neal said the city is excited about the prospects for the center.

Attempts to reach someone from Hanson were unsuccessful at press time.

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