Center for Aging Infrastructure Master Planning and Site Design

West Lafayette, Indiana

The Center for Aging Infrastructure is a unique education and engineering center focused on existing steel highway bridges. The goal for the 20-acre development is to become the leading education, training, research, and engineering facility related to all aspects affecting the aging US bridge inventory. American Structurepoint was selected to provide the initial master planning services, including facilitation of a design charrette and conceptual site planning. Our civil engineers, planning staff, and land surveyors worked with the university to develop site programming, layouts, and concepts in order to develop a final site layout. Following the master plan, our engineers began site design for Phase I, including design for the gravel vehicular drives, parking areas, gravel research stations, and grading and drainage. Design for storm drainage and conduit for future utilities was also included.

Master Planning, Phase I
American Structurepoint contracted with Purdue University to begin working on the master planning services for the Center for Aging Infrastructure site. The master planning for Phase I was for a 20-acre parcel, concentrating on the Steel Bridge Research Inspection, Training and Education (S-BRITE Engineering) Center. Our master planning services were conducted by our civil engineering team and planning professionals, and included the facilitation of a design charrette and conceptual site planning. Land survey work was also conducted for the proposed site during the planning phase. American Structurepoint worked collaboratively with Purdue University and School of Civil Engineering staff to develop site programming needs, layouts, and concepts in order to develop a final site layout that met the needs and expectations for the new training site. We facilitated an intensive, one-day, planning charrette workshop, where all stakeholders were brought together in an open, streamlined, and collective setting. Participants contributed to a process that produced feasible results and allowed all parties to provide input. The master planning process concluded in August 2013, and we furnished Purdue University with a conceptual site master plan, and a detailed master plan report with key findings, goals, implementation strategies, and proposed construction costs.

Site Design, Phase I
Following our master planning services for this project, American Structurepoint contracted with Purdue University to start design for the first phase of the 20-acre research facility site. The entire site design was based on the work that had already been completed during the collaborative master planning phase. Specifically, Phase I included design for the gravel vehicular drives and parking areas, gravel research stations, and all the grading and drainage to meet Purdue University’s standards. The utility infrastructure design provided storm drainage and conduit design for future utilities, and each of the research stations were laid out and design for all grading was provided.