Serenbe MADO

Company: RDJE, Inc.
Industry: General Building
Location: Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia
Expected Completion Date: February 1, 2016
Project Website

36 Acres of sitework that included 38,396 LF of Storm, Sewer, & Water Piping, 118 Precast Structures, Granite Curbing, Palisades Retaining Wall, Water Quality Islands, & 25,337 SY of Asphalt.

The project developed area for residential and commercial development. Restaurants, stores, spas, hotels, houses, townhomes, and even medical offices will be located within this area. MADO is also set up to be for multi-generational living.

What impact does this project have on America?

This job is based within a development called Serenbe. Serenbe’s motto is “The best reason to live here is the life here”. Serenbe’s focus is on incorporating nature with the city. Miles of nature paths link into the asphalt & concrete sidewalks that have been installed. This project was built around the idea of placing a community within nature, without removing nature. Tree removal was kept to the minimum to set up a country feel for every homeowner. Every part of the project had a purpose to the whole. What we installed fit into the surrounding and didn’t take it over. Serenbe’s layout allows for large areas of undeveloped green space to be used for the residents and community. Houses do not have grass and are have smaller lot lines that eliminate the need for yard equipment. Geothermal wells are drilled for each home to use as its heating and air.

What interesting obstacles or unusual circumstances did you overcome to complete the project?

The most unusual obstacle we had to overcome was the subgrade. After passing subgrade tests and base tests, we could not get the base to proofroll. Tensar had been used on the subgrade as well. We ended up meeting and used soil cement to overcome the problem. The soil cement allowed us to ensure the base would not fail, and allowed us to decrease the asphalt thickness detail. This in turn helped the owner with no additional costs to the project.
Weather was of a different magnitude on the project as well. Multiple times on the job trees would fall during storms and barely miss pieces of equipment on site. We had a downburst on the site during the project, which is similar to a tornado (a picture is attached). A total of 31 inches fell during the critical 5 months of the project which was difficult to overcome. At one point in the job we had installed 5,000 gallon wastewater tanks and the amount of rainfall that came before we could backfill lifted the tanks out of the ground roughly 8 VF. The tanks weighed 48,000 LBS each.

What dangers and risks did you encounter, and describe any extraordinary methods used to keep workers safe?

Serenbe has many livestock and we encountered loose cattle that had broken through the fence multiple times. Workers had to avoid certai areas at times.

How did you leverage new technologies to work faster and reduce waste?

We used Bluebeam Revu for plan management and changes throughout the project. Heavybid, our estimating program, allowed for easy price changes and change orders to be created.