Geotechnical & Materials Engineering, IBC Special Inspections, Material Testing
Midway College, located in Midway, Kentucky, is a private, non-profit liberal arts college, founded in 1847 by Dr. Lewis L. Pinkerton, as the first school in the United States to serve orphaned and disadvantaged women. Through the years the school evolved and became Pinkerton High School, Midway Junior College, and finally Midway College. Today, Midway College is a leader in providing educational opportunities for men and women who wish to continue their education. Many programs are offered in an accelerated format where students attend classes one evening per week or online anytime. The main campus day program still operates as Kentucky’s only women’s college and provides a unique learning and living opportunity for women seeking their associate or bachelor degrees. Midway College is known for its excellence throughout Kentucky and beyond in four pillar program areas – Business, Equine Studies, Nursing, and Teacher Education. The College is approved to award associate, baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degrees.
As increasing enrollment in each of Midway’s four pillar programs plus the School for Career Development, the online college and growing MBA program demanded a state-of-the-art technology facility. The 80 year old Starks Hall could not meet the needs set forth. Midway turned to Ross Tarrant Architects, Brown and Kubican Structural Engineers and CSI to provide the design for the facility upgrade. It was important for Midway to keep their cultural, historical and educational atmospheres for the campus.
CSI came to the team to conduct two phases of geotechnical services; an initial concept planning phase and then the design phase. These initial services assisted the design team in determining the foundation design and overall earthwork risks and planning needs for the project construction. One specific issue we revealed was the Karst topography as related to the site. Several Karst features were observed in our soil test borings and overall site evaluation. our recommendations and construction comments assisted in structural design as well as overall project budget planning, saving the owner many thousands of dollars as possible future risk associated with the performance of the new building.
