Collin College Allen Campus Welding Program Expansion

Collin College is one of our long-standing clients that approached us with an issue at their Technical Campus in Allen, TX. Their welding program had reached capacity, and they also had nuisance wind and rain entrainment in an area of their facility which they wanted to resolve.

They asked RWB Consulting Engineers if they could expand the welding program’s space into an open-air bay adjacent to their existing space for the program. In addition, they wanted to know if the wind and rain that blew into this open-air bay could be mitigated to more acceptable levels. We visited the site, assessed the facility and its MEP systems, and with the assistance of Glenn Partners (a local architect) and L.A. Fuess (the original structural engineer for the facility), we generated a report for the college documenting the questions, the conditions, and a Schematic Design for potential proposed solutions. The report also included rough order of magnitude costs for the solutions.

After review, Collin College decided to move forward with a project that implemented the solutions proposed by RWB Consulting Engineers and their team members. The Welding Program Expansion & Elemental Abatement project provided Collin College with fifteen (15) new welding booths, and it also addressed environmental conditions in the open-air bay, converting it into a more occupant-acceptable educational space.

The project included revisions to power systems in that wing of the building to accommodate the new welding equipment. It also added a centralized welding exhaust system for the welding program expansion, providing point-of-use welding exhaust intakes in each booth. The project installed louvers to the bay to abate wind and rain while tying into the building’s existing architecture and structural members. High-volume, low-speed fans now circulate air in that space, adding to occupant comfort.

The project has recently finished and provides the Technical Campus in Allen with the ability to add more sections and additional class capacity for its welding program that is well recognized by local industry and filled to capacity each semester.