A “Shovel-Ready” School Building Solution

By Dave Withee

If you grew up in the ‘60’s like I did you saw lots of portable classrooms going up as schools couldn’t keep up with the growth of the baby boomer generation. And we all know what we thought of those classrooms!

Well, Modular Buildings are not your ‘60’s portable classrooms. Consider:

• Buildings can go up 30-50% faster than traditional construction.
• You can often get as much as 10% more space for the same construction cost of traditional methods.
• Materials are not prone to job-site weather damage or pilferage.
• Quality of construction is better because of the factory environment.
• Job-site safety is better because much of the “construction” is done under the better controls of the factory.
• Health benefits are typically better if built correctly. (These are not FEMA trailers!)
• Some designs can decrease energy consumption as much as 30%.
• Many manufacturers are already set up to meet both LEED and CHPS requirements.
• Buildings are much more customizable than the ‘60’s models.

If you are looking to decrease the cost of schools in general, not just the science classrooms, it wouldn’t hurt to look at the benefits of using modular building construction.

You can “google” for info of course, but here are some web sites to help you get started:

www.case21.org

www.triumphmodular.com

www.nrb-inc.com/in-stock_pc2000.php

www.mbinet.org