As part of their Senior Design Capstone course, Civil & Environmental Engineering students created designs and provided cost estimates for an expansion to the Manchester Fire Department.

The Manchester Fire Department recently acquired a lot behind the fire station and have an interest in using the space to construct a storage facility and pave the remaining area for a parking lot. The new building should have similar characteristics of the existing fire station, while not detracting from the residential neighborhood. Storm water runoff from the site will need to be managed and controlled.

Infrequently used equipment currently occupied space in the existing fire station that could be better utilized for everyday needs of the department. The new cold storage facility would serve as the primary location to store this equipment, including but not limited to a boat, a trailer, kayaks, and ice water and rescue equipment. The department initially proposed a 30’x30’ storage facility in the northwest corner of the lot; however, this configuration would not have been adequate to meet their storage requirements. Two building size alternatives were considered and presented to the Manchester Fire Department as well as multiple locations corresponding with maximized parking designs.

The main challenge faced during this project was striking a balance between maximum storage space and maximum parking spaces on site. An additional challenge was keeping the overall project costs to a minimum to make implementation of the designs feasible. Constraints for this project included restrictions on the building’s placement location due to city codes and setbacks requirements. Finally, an oak tree in the northwest corner of the site required protection. No construction or changes to the site were to be implemented within a 15’ radius of this tree in to protect the roots. Additionally, during construction, the tree and its protected radius should be roped off to avoid any heavy vehicles driving above and damaging the roots.