Prefab classrooms save cash

BY KIMBERLY C. MOOREFLORIDA TODAY --
November 28, 2005

Indian River County schools cut construction time

GIFFORD - In just 24 hours, a prefabricated, concrete 12-classroom wing of the Gifford Alternative Education Center sprouted from the soil work that normally would take months to complete using traditional blocks and mortar.

"There was nothing but the footers yesterday morning," Royal Concrete Concepts spokesman Randy Berry said. "I've seen hundreds of these go up, and I'm still amazed."

In the battle to create more classrooms to comply with the class-size amendment, yet keep costs down, Indian River County and other school districts are turning to prefabricated "concretable" classrooms and prefabricated walls, which some call "LEGOS on steroids."

School district officials said they cost about 40 percent less than traditional permanent structures and company officials said they can withstand 150-mph hurricane-force winds. If needed, the buildings can be disassembled and moved elsewhere. But some school districts have had problems.

The Royal Concrete buildings, about the size of a traditional portable, arrive on site 95 percent complete. After workers put them into place, windows and flooring are installed, seams waterproofed and electricity and plumbing tied in, said John Albert, Royal Concrete sales and marketing manager. They can be stand-alone buildings joined at the sides or mounted one on another for a two-story structure.

Susan Olson, Indian River County's director of facilities, planning and construction, said the district bought 38 of the concretable classrooms before last year's hurricanes, and not one had any damage from the storms.

"It is not going to be classified as a (hurricane) shelter, but if I was living in a house, and I wasn't too sure about it, it wouldn't bother me at all to come and stay in one of these," Olson said.

At the Gifford Alternative Center, Royal Concrete is putting up an administration building, in addition to an L-shaped classroom wing. Only two buildings remain from the old school, which was badly damaged in hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. Those buildings are being remodeled. The cost for redoing the center is $7.6 million. Olson said if the school district had opted for the traditional bricks and mortar route, the cost would increase to about $10 million.

Where school districts save the most money is in time. It takes about a year to complete a new school. It's going to take half that to finish the Alternative Education Center.

"There's no way we'd get it done in this time frame," Olson said.

The school will be home to 170 students, who will have the opportunity to enroll in a nursing assistant, culinary arts or welding programs. In addition, adult education courses and a career academy also will be on site.

While Indian River officials love the concretables, they are not something in which Brevard Public Schools construction officials are interested.

"We have investigated them over the last several years and they don't compete overall with our standard portables," which are not made of concrete, said Dane Theodore, Brevard Public Schools' director of planning and project management. "They're not easily moveable, they're 50 to 100 percent more (expensive), depending on what you buy, and our portables are constructed to withstand 130-mph windloads."

Theodore said they were faster, not necessarily cheaper in the long run when compared with other portables. And not all concretables are the same.

Sarasota County school officials had trouble with concretables made by New Century Structures out of Orlando. Spokeswoman Sheila Weiss said the district was disappointed that the buildings arrived only 10 percent to 15 percent completed, and they wound up spending almost as much as if they had built a regular building. New Century couldn't be reached for comment. A phone number for the company is out of service.

Royal Concrete Concepts is working in 13 Florida school districts and has sold about 2,000 concretables. Albert said they have stopped comparing themselves to portables.

"We don't really compete with them anymore," he said.

While Indian River's student population has increased by about 350 children annually, Brevard's population has grown by an average of 1,000 students a year for the past few years.

Olson said they are ready for more students, armed with a way to house them inexpensively and safely.