RTM Engineering Consultants’ civil engineering team specializes in site engineering designs for commercial, residential, industrial and municipal projects. With more than 30 years of experience, our civil team has the ability to design outside of the box to determine cost effective and reliable engineering solutions for clients.
When RTM worked with an early learning center to increase pedestrian safety at its 70,000-square-foot facility for three- to five-year-olds, our engineering experts redesigned the school’s drop-off areas to increase efficiency and reduce traffic concerns, including stalled traffic. RTM obtained a parking setback variance that allowed the removal of bus parking off the streets by providing parking, along with bus and student drop-off areas on site. Each area functioned independently and did not intermingle with the other, designated sidewalks equipped with clear signage added extra security for parents and students.
Our team conducted neighborhood meetings as a way to bring public awareness to the project as well as to field concerns from community members. From this meeting, RTM learned that the community had an ongoing flooding issue that was adjacent to the construction site and members were concerned that the new development would only increase potential flooding hazards. RTM addressed concerns by implementing an underground detention system—needed to store stormwater on site as required by local codes for any new development—to improve drainage in the area.
“Because the school was located in a residential area, we wanted to ensure that we addressed the concerns of community members as well as school officials,” said RTM Principal Scott DiGilio, P.E. “Our innovative engineering solutions not only helped in creating safe loading and unloading zones by removing buses off the streets, but also helped in eliminating flooding issues for neighbors. The underground detention system addressed student safety concerns and increased usable playing field area.”
To enable the center to open at the beginning of the next school year, RTM also obtained special permission from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) to allow construction of mass grading and foundation work to begin prior to obtaining the required MWRD permit.
Our civil engineering experience and expertise allow us to ask the right questions needed to provide inventive design solutions to clients. This approach has proven to shorten the length of improvements and overcome site challenges while meeting client needs.
To see a full list of civil engineering services provided by RTM, click here.