Engineered Buildings

Featured Project

Richmond County North Carolina Operations and Maintenance Building

The Richmond County Solid Waste Department and Water Services Department were both in need of a maintenance facility. For years the county had been providing maintenance services for all the county vehicles from an old turn of the century house and garage with two bays. They did not have adequate space, electrical power nor storage space and could not work on any vehicle over eight feet tall. MESCO was selected to plan and design a combined Maintenance/Office Building to serve both the Water Services and Solid Waste Departments.

Adequate space for the new facility was available at the Solid Waste landfill. County water was available at the site, but a septic tank drainfield had to be designed for wastewater treatment. MESCO worked with the Solid Waste and Water Service Departments’ management and personnel to determine the needs and desires for the new facility and incorporated as many of those as possible into the final design. Adjustments were made as necessary to stay within the budget constraints. We worked with the Health Department to design and permit a septic system to serve the facility and the County Building Inspector to incorporate their recommendations.

The final design yielded a new facility that currently handles maintenance for all of the County’s vehicles and provides a work location for approximately fifteen employees. Maintenance services include everything from oil changes to engine rebuilds. The building is actually classified as two separate occupancies divided by a two hour firewall between the maintenance and office areas. The Maintenance side of the building includes a drop down dispensing system for all of the bulk liquids used to service the vehicles and includes water, oil, grease, and air. A welding area surrounded by welding curtains is located in a corner of the maintenance area. The service bays are sized to accept vehicles from a passenger car up to a full size tractor and trailer rig and can accommodate a mobile expandable pedestal lift system that is also located in the building. A traveling bridge crane runs the width of the building and can be accessed from two back-to-back bays or one double-length bay.

The Office/Equipment side of the building consists of four offices, restrooms, an employee break room with kitchenette, two secure storage areas, tool storage areas, and a large area for secure over-sized interior storage. An open mezzanine storage area is also included over the offices. In addition, MESCO designed a pneumatic transfer system between the Office Building and the scales at the entrance to the adjacent landfill to facilitate the transfer of weight tickets.

The Richmond County Operations and Maintenance Building was completed in 2016 within budget at a cost of $1.6 million and ahead of schedule.