Lee’s Summit Technical Campus Townsend Capital – Utility Separation
Apr 24, 2013
Lee’s Summit Technical Campus Townsend Capital
Utility Separation
sys-tek completed a utility separation project for the Lee’s Summit Technical Campus located at the corner of 291 Highway and I-470, in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. This project involved separating the North and South buildings of the campus, one million square feet, into two separate sections to be sold individually.
Updating Facilities
The campus was constructed from the late 1950s through the 1990s. Originally the campus included three primary buildings North (building 30), South (building 50), and Center (building 20). All buildings were served from a central chiller/steam plant located in a separate building (building 40).
The original water supply to the campus was provided by a 20” water line that was designed for a gravity feed system. The gravity system was then pumped to a water tower approximately 150 feet in elevation. This tower provided the water pressure to the buildings. There was a one million gallon tank at ground level that was used to store water that was fed from the gravity main. The elevated tank stored two million gallons of water where 50% of this tank was reserved for fire protection sprinkler systems.
The remaining utilities, including natural gas, storm, and sewer, were campus-owned. The center building was demolished in 2005 and utilities were abandoned in place. In 2006, sys-tek worked with the facility owners to separate all the campus utilities to create two separate properties known as Building 30 and Building 50. The central utility plant, Building 40, was demolished and replaced by two distinct chiller plants for each remaining building.
Effective Communication & Coordination
Under the utility separation project, sys-tek eliminated the gravity water supply system and split the utilities for each building. As the Consulting Engineer on this project, sys-tek was responsible for close coordination with all levels of officials for the City of Lee’s Summit. These included the water, gas, & power departments, the local city & code officials, and working with members of the fire department. The fire protection systems included hydrants, reserved water capacity, and sprinkler systems.
The fire protection systems included a looped fire main that surrounded the campus. Under the separation project, we worked closely with the Lee’s Summit Fire Marshall & city officials to develop a plan to maintain the fire loop and eliminate the elevated tank while providing a clear separation of the buildings for separate owners.
